bottom paint

[jcapo]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

if you can not get the ABC3 you might consider Sherwin Williams Seagaurd Copper Bottom 45

I have painted twice with Seaguard and I like it. The price has gone up and red was not available two months ago. I'm not ready to paint again so maybe that will change.

[WE9V]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

People who not have been in an area shouldn't give advise on if a bottom paint might work there. Florida water varies a lot and even a paint that works 1 area may not work in others here.

The OP didn't say which part of Florida, therefore my advice is just as valid for my part of Florida as is your advice for your part of Florida.

Or put more negatively, you are saying that no one should be giving any bottom paint advice at all, unless it is specific to the OP's exact area? Got it.

[MIRELOS]

being the OP...I do not stay in one area of Florida or the east coast...I'm a cruisers and as such I cruise up and down, I stay for up to one month max and move on to experience the cruising life

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by WE9V

The OP didn't say which part of Florida, therefore my advice is just as valid for my part of Florida as is your advice for your part of Florida.

Or put more negatively, you are saying that no one should be giving any bottom paint advice at all, unless it is specific to the OP's exact area? Got it.

no I am saying advise for what works in Maine etc is pretty limited

And I said nothing about YOUR advise!!! But can say based on MY personal experience of Seahawk BioCop is that it had hard growth within 1 month of Florida Jacksonville to Palm Beach. Continued the trend another month to Marathon where I had to clean the bottom. Cleaned again a month later in Fort Myers. Spend 1 month in Sarasota and it grew a jungle on the bottom. Went up through Pensacola to Gulfport MS and it continued to be a great home to anything in the water.

I contracted Seahawk and the end result was they changed their "guarantee"

[carlosproa]

Originally Posted by MIRELOS

being the OP...I do not stay in one area of Florida or the east coast...I'm a cruisers and as such I cruise up and down, I stay for up to one month max and move on to experience the cruising life

If you are moving so much I wonder if there is any advantage of hard vs ablative paint on a boat on the go?
I have no idea

[twofingerpoi]

I can't say what's best for your boat in your waters etc, but I did a DIY job about six months ago using SeaHawk CuKote which was the same bottom paint that was applied five years earlier. The prev owner had regular cleaning and kept the boat in the water at a marina near Jacksonville that is mostly fresh but sailed in brackish to salt water. The paint was still good after five years, but was due for a refresh. I applied five boats on the waterline and key wear areas such as the bow, keel and rudder with three coats on the rest. She's at Port Canaveral which is a damn petri dish, but divers clean her monthly and report with photos that the paint is "fair" which is their way of covering their ass. My own in-water inspection is that CuKote is holding up well and I expect to get two years or more. Trinidad is popular with the cruisers but hard paints require a hard soda blast every five or so years and most hard paints don't sit on the hard well.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by twofingerpoi

...hard paints require a hard soda blast every five or so years...

That is simply not true.

[twofingerpoi]

I’m probably misinformed by the much more experienced cruisers that have Trinidad on their boats here in Florida.

I have Cukote, as I mentioned, so just passing along what I’ve been told. I’ve heard that hard paints build up over time and need to be stripped periodically. I’m sure you can sand but perhaps soda or sand blast is quick and easy.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by twofingerpoi

I’ve heard that hard paints build up over time and need to be stripped periodically.

That much is true but it is only after many coats of paint. If you had to strip it back to gel coat every five years (as you stipulated previously), you'd essentially be doing that after every paint job or two.

[Dave9111]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1:
>People who not have been in an area shouldn't give advise on if a bottom paint might work there. Florida water varies a lot and even a paint that works 1 area may not work in others here.<

Sure Sailorboy.... and do you recommend that everyone change bottom paint when sailing out of the area??

Total Nonsense. Paint that works well against bottom growth, generally works well period.

Copper has been used to thwart marine growth since wooden ships crossed the oceans. They were sheeted with copper below the waterline to prevent marine growth and shipworms.

If you can get a paint that exposes copper, you are all set.

That's the goal of ablative paint with a high copper content.

Akzo Nobel who owns Interlux bought Seahawk and also Blue Water Marine paints.

When I started using Blue Water 45 it was about $100/gal. Now its about $200/gal. Still, it works really well for me.

If you want some definitive testing results check out Practical Sailor's magazine. To get all of their info you will probably need to subscribe and get access to their older magazines. Or maybe not!

https://www.practical-sailor.com/unc...m-paint-survey

I have bought the Blue Seas paint from the Bottom Paint Store online, Amazon, and Ebay. I have found that buying it online is almost always cheaper than at a brick and mortar store.

I tend to buy it ahead of time. I have about 1 1/2 gallons on the shelf right now. The shelf life is long. Years. Typical of a solvent based paint. Still, I keep it inside the house so the temperature of the paint in storage does not swing dramatically as it does in garage storage. That helps with shelf life.

FWIW, if you sign up with the Bottom Paint store they will announce sales once in a while with free shipping. Their prices are very hard to beat when they have a sale.

Before overcoating your water based SeaHawk paint with a solvent paint, I would call the help line for Interlux/Seahawk/Blue water paints and see what they say.

Dave

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Dave9111

Paint that works well against bottom growth, generally works well period.

So 100% not true

[MIRELOS]

I agree with you; the year I stayed in the Northeast, Seahawk performed with minimal growth...repainted and cruised south and the growth started in St.Augustine and continued to get worse as I went further south...it was hard growth so light cleaning was of no help, it grew after dive clean as quick as you can close your eyes

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by MIRELOS

I agree with you; the year I stayed in the Northeast, Seahawk performed with minimal growth...repainted and cruised south and the growth started in St.Augustine and continued to get worse as I went further south...it was hard growth so light cleaning was of no help, it grew after dive clean as quick as you can close your eyes

But the paint that works down south probably also works up north?

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

But the paint that works down south probably also works up north?

That is not a given. For instance, some paints that are very popular in Florida do not perform at all well in California. Different regions have different fouling organisms and therefore some paints that are good at retarding growth in one place do not do so well in another.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Dave9111

Originally Posted by sailorboy1:
>People who not have been in an area shouldn't give advise on if a bottom paint might work there. Florida water varies a lot and even a paint that works 1 area may not work in others here.<

Sure Sailorboy.... and do you recommend that everyone change bottom paint when sailing out of the area??

Total Nonsense. Paint that works well against bottom growth, generally works well period.



Dave

Here is a thing you may not understand.

I am not really all that interested

I don't even understand what most of your rant has to do anything I wrote