Home-made botom paint

[LeisurelyCruise]

Needing botom paint on a budget, I'm considering latex deck & porch paint with a bunch of added poison. Any ideas?

Leisurely Cruiseer

[Kettlewell]

No! Search around now in the off season and buy the cheapest paint you can find with a decent load of copper in it. The few bucks you save on making your own paint will forever haunt you when you next haul out and discover the bottom of your boat is now a reef.

[Vasco]

Depends on where you are. I have not put bottom paint on my boat on Lake Ontario for more than four years. All I get is a bit of slime at the end of the season. The zebra mussels have cleaned the waters up. Very little growth.

Now if you're in a creek in SC, that's a totally different situation.

[Kettlewell]

Depends on where you are.

Good point--I was assuming salt water. I lived in South Carolina for several years and you had to have your bottom scraped by a diver once a month or you couldn't move, even with the finest bottom paint.

[Teknav]

I recommend copper-based paint like the one sold by Pettit; no association whatsoever with Pettit. Copper is mildly toxic and will retard the attachments of barnacles, among other creatures to your boat's bottom. Now, if you want to be one notch ahead of the curve...a little Arsenic (1-5% W/V) mixed in the above paint, and you will not have to worry about anything attaching to your boat. Arsenic is a toxic substance and can kill humans. Middle eastern countries have it sold over the counter, where hardware and paint supplies are sold. Many people in the mid-east mix their own paint, then add the color pigment they want; Arsenic is almost always in the paint mixture. Mauritz

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by LeisurelyCruise

Needing botom paint on a budget, I'm considering latex deck & porch paint with a bunch of added poison. Any ideas?

Leisurely Cruiseer

I feel the odds are that you are just delaying spending the money till next year, when you will spend more money to remove the home made stuff than what you "saved".

[JK n Smitty]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

I feel the odds are that you are just delaying spending the money till next year, when you will spend more money to remove the home made stuff than what you "saved".

Not to mention opening yourself up to large fines from the EPA and others. Possible jail time too.

How much do you think you could save? A gallon of Pasifica Plus costs me $149. And that's expensive paint compared to others because it is copper free. I get two coats, thin ones using fine foam rollers. Works fine in New England waters.

[onestepcsy37]

i'm always looking to save money, but bottom paint is not one place i look. the cost of hauling, pressure washing, sanding, and repainting every year or two is more than the cost of just putting the best paint on in the first place.

pettit unepoxy (45% copper) is $109 in daytona beach. the stuff i use, pettit trinidad 75, is $199.

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by LeisurelyCruise

Needing botom paint on a budget, I'm considering latex deck & porch paint with a bunch of added poison. Any ideas?

Leisurely Cruiseer

Don't know about the Latex but, you might want to look into this stuff if you want to mix up your own bottom paint:
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: GOOD NEWS FOR BOAT BOTTOMS
Have not tried it my self as my yard demands the do the painting and provide it also.

[SailingChance]

Originally Posted by Teknav

I recommend copper-based paint like the one sold by Pettit; no association whatsoever with Pettit.

A boat at our marina in (Cape Marina in Cape Canaveral, FL) was just hauled out that used Pettit bottom paint. It had an entire reef growing on the bottom and just painted the bottom the year before.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by LeisurelyCruise

Needing botom paint on a budget, I'm considering latex deck & porch paint with a bunch of added poison. Any ideas?

Leisurely Cruiseer

Commercially-available anti fouling paint is not simply paint with copper added. It is a matrix of ingredients carefully designed to release its toxin slowly and (for the most part) evenly over a period of years. The paint manufacturers have spent decades and many millions of dollars developing it. What makes you think that pouring some Roundup into a bucket of latex house paint is going to do anything except fail miserably as an anti fouling coating for your boat?