Wrapping your boat bottom with vinyl.

[Big Moe]

Hello fellow sailors:

I just saw a video of a family reconditioning their 57 foot Beneteau. They wrapped their complete bottom with vinyl instead of bottom painting it.
I'm old fashion and it wield worry me that it may start to peel or rip from a ding.

Any thoughts?

Big Moe

[Snore]

IMHO classic case of “it looked like a great idea on paper”.

[dannc]

I saw this video recently about using a bottom wrap. It sounds interesting...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxivdUqLf3o

The company's website is https://www.finsulate.com/en/

Will be interesting to see if this stuff works over time.

Later,
Dan

[Rob_P]

I saw a video on You tube about a substance called Aerogel. In sum it's a substance where they take all the liquid out of a gelatin and what's left becomes a solid structure with nano-holes in it where the liquid was.

In one of the videos they used it to waterproof the guy in the video and showed him in a pool not getting "wet" because the Aerogel kept the water away from his skin.

It got me wondering if this could be engineered into a good bottom paint since the hull wouldn't ever be touched by water and the things that need water to survive couldn't attach.

Then I got to thinking about the possible effect on hull speed when the hull is "unwetted."

Yeah, ok maybe I'm strange that way...



As for vinyl wrap on the hull, no thanks. If the hull got holed at sea, you couldn't patch it.

[fstbttms]

Pro tip- When it comes to anti fouling coatings, don't be the guinea pig.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Big Moe

Hello fellow sailors:

I just saw a video of a family reconditioning their 57 foot Beneteau. They wrapped their complete bottom with vinyl instead of bottom painting it.

How about a link?

[carlosproa]

Originally Posted by dannc

I saw this video recently about using a bottom wrap. It sounds interesting...

The company's website is https://www.finsulate.com/en/



Will be interesting to see if this stuff works over time.



Later,

Dan

I cannot find a 1 year inmersión comparison test video. He should send this to practical sailor

[Rorzech]

Like a duck ! Ducks sit "on" the water. They sit on the surface tension. Maybe a boat surface could mimmic water foul feathers ! You could really get some speed then, or could you ? Who knows ?

[guyrj33]

Originally Posted by Rorzech

Like a duck ! Ducks sit "on" the water. They sit on the surface tension. Maybe a boat surface could mimmic water foul feathers ! You could really get some speed then, or could you ? Who knows ?

A ducks feathers are hydrophobic, they shed water. But a duck is still a displacement vessel sitting in the water.

[guyrj33]

While this is an interesting idea, i'm worried that it will increase the amount of micro plastic pollution in the ocean.

[tkeithlu]

QUOTE "the things that need water to survive couldn't attach."

Barnacles don't need water in order to get a grip. They need water flow for food and oxygen. Use the marine biologist's term "hard substrate." Steel will do.

In other words, if it did work, you'd be peeling it off with all the little barnacles every week.

[s/v michaela]

here is a quote from a boat owner....
We are having problems with Finsulate and Rik the owner, neither has been responsive to our needs. Rik the owner has stopped responding to our messages and emails, not good. This product DID NOT WORK as advertised. After being in the water for a little over 4 weeks we made the decision to haul the boat out. We figured we’d do a quick check of the hulls while the boat was on the hard and report back to Rik if we saw or had any issues. We had heard from others that there was another Saba that Finsulate did just before ours that was also experiencing issues. When we had the boat lifted what we found was shocking. We had som much weeds and other marine growth that had attached itself all over the Finsulate and rooted itself in. It looked as if our boat had grown a wild hockey beard from one end to the other. 20 man hours later 4 of us trying like hell to clean the growth from the boats bottom. At first we tried the spatula method which proved to be useless and then a professional pressure washer set at 180 bars or 1800 psi, both methods recommended by Finsulate. After all that work the boat is still covered in weeds , roots and other unknown marine growth. We have some other issues with the Finsulate there are bubbles in it, seams that are coming apart and millions of roots which we have no way to remove. Our boat is still not clean and we fear that putting it back in the water will just be another recipe for disaster. We await a response from Rik. THIS PRODUCT DID NOT WORK FOR US AS REPRESENTED OR AS ADVERTISED. We hope that Rik will do the right thing here and help us out of the jam his product has caused. It’s difficult to understand how this product was considered the product of the year. Wow, sure wish in hindsight we had done more homework before we agreed to do business with this company."

This was off of a FB page and followed by more similar comments from other boat owners... looks like it's a bust.

[gulfcoastsailor]

2 cents more:
At my local Advanced Auto Parts store there is a can of engine coating that sprays on like paint but dries as a vinyl. Advertised to easily peel off later. If one could locate a way cover bigger areas than with a typical spray can it may be an option. I wouldn’t be surprised if Flex Seal has a comparable product.

Post any results please.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by Snore

IMHO classic case of “it looked like a great idea on paper”.

[Quadrille in JB]

Bad idea
We had our 41’ morgan’s hull wrapped in Estonia several years ago. After 400 miles it began to peel off at the bow and wherever it was scratched.
I can’t believe some of the far out responses some of the CF readers come up with.