Bottom Paint

[ifonly]

Hi all. We've got a 2 year old Lagoon 40 catamaran on the hard in Florida and wonder if we need to get the bottom painted before going back in the water. The paint looks really good and we've got no growth. Are there other criteria to repainting?

[S/V Illusion]

Depends entirely on what the paint on the boat currently is. That will dictate its future efficacy after drying out.

[rwidman]

Some types of paint lose effectiveness if left out of the water for more than a couple days. Others do not.

Ask the boatyard manager for advice.

[grantmc]

OP stating when the existing paint was applied would assist to receive good answers.

[deltaten]

ifonly;
Unknown type or age? Best practice would be to scuff sand and roll on a coat or three. Yer outta the water now....do it now =peace of mind
HTH

[Marathon1150]

Originally Posted by deltaten

ifonly;
Unknown type or age? Best practice would be to scuff sand and roll on a coat or three. Yer outta the water now....do it now =peace of mind
HTH

I strongly agree with this suggestion. The cost of hauling out is usually significantly more than the cost of high quality bottom paint, particularly if the bottom prep and paint application are done by the owner.

Our experience in warm water (Sea of Cortez, French Polynesia) using an ablative high copper content paint was an efficacious lifetime of 3 years. This included monthly bottom cleaning, particularly the waterline, in Mexico over a period of about 10 years.

[Tin Tin]

If anti-foul paint is two years old I would re-paint. If you don't know the brand of paint, give it a light sand and prime it and paint with what ever you want. The alternative is that you do nothing with possibility in less than six months you may have weeds and barnacles growing all over it which will be very annoying.