Temporary Alternative for Bottom Paint?

[cdcorl]

If you have more time than money, put a hard paint on and dive on it every week or so. I know lots of folks who live on there boats that scrape the bottom instead of painting it. It just becomes part of your weekly routine.

[moseriw]

Yes, dive and clean it.

[thlamers]

In regards to the idea of "temporary", have you the option of bagging the hull in order to eliminate fouling?


Long ago on the West Coast it was common for owners in slips to sail their boat into a floating plastic bag with a "purse-like' closure at the stern.


The edges of the bag were kept afloat with a closed cell foam wrapped into the edges of the bag. Apparently the trapped water became toxic to marine growth due to stagnation or even just the effects of sloughed off old bottom paint. Not very expensive but eventually the outside of the bag became fouled and a chore to dispose of or clean.


Tom LaMers

[LifePart2]

Originally Posted by thlamers

In regards to the idea of "temporary", have you the option of bagging the hull in order to eliminate fouling?


Long ago on the West Coast it was common for owners in slips to sail their boat into a floating plastic bag with a "purse-like' closure at the stern.


The edges of the bag were kept afloat with a closed cell foam wrapped into the edges of the bag. Apparently the trapped water became toxic to marine growth due to stagnation or even just the effects of sloughed off old bottom paint. Not very expensive but eventually the outside of the bag became fouled and a chore to dispose of or clean.


Tom LaMers

This is what we do with our props when we go away for any length of time with the boat in the water. A couple of bags over each prop, tied on with a 1/4" dia. string tied with a bow with long tails. When we come back the bag is well fouled, but we just pull the long tails which frees off the bow knot, and then pull off the bags. Result: nice clean props!

Haven't tried it with the whole boat. But have seen some very impressive eco system growing on the bottom after just a couple of months in warm water (Prickly bay, Grenada, and the Lagoon in St Martin). And that is with good (but ablative) anti-fouling.

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

Be mindful that there is a big difference in performance from various bottom paint manufacturers.
Same holds true for number of coats applied.
You get what you pay for...

This is VERY true!


I last hauled my boat in spring 2020, and applied two coats of Micron Extra (ablative). 8000NM and nearly 4 years later, I hauled last month. The pressure washer took all the "slime" off (a layer of greenish/brownish muck about 1/8 thick or less), and left a beautiful blue bottom. There were barnacles in places, of course, but the pile of stuff they scraped off wouldn't fill half of a 5 gallon bucket.

I had a professional diver clean it the spring of 2021 and 2022, and I "snorkeled" it with a brush 2-3 times in 2023 (so only reached down about 2-3 feet, took about 10 minutes to do the entire boat). "Journeys" were mostly open ocean (US East Coast), with a month in fresh water (Great Lakes and St Lawrence River), all winters and summers of 2020 and 2023 were middle Chesapeake Bay.

I am beyond pleased. Too bad that Micron Extra joins all the other wonderful "miracle products" (like TBT, PCB's, asbestos, DDT, etc) in the pile of banned products. (NOTE: That's a joke -- I am NOT saying it's bad that bad stuff is banned!).

Good paint, while EXPENSIVE, is worth every penny.