postponing antifouling paint job. OK or not OK?

[Ahneema]

I’ve seen growth on boats begin in 3-4 days! Part of owning a boat! Mine is bottom painted and I have it cleaned once a month. Had my previous boat pulled out for maintenance and after 2 years of bottom paint...looks like it had just been applied a month before!

[Squanderbucks]

Putting it back in the water as is will not hurt the fiberglass - just change the zincs but you will have a much bigger job when the time comes. Once barnacles and such are attached and scrapped off they leave behind a base that is difficult to remove by just scraping. If scraped enough to fully remove then usually the paint goes with it down to the glass. It will almost immediately begin to collect growth there faster than you can imagine. You might be able to sail her for a while but in 14 months she's going to be a pig that's not much fun to pilot.
If you need a temp fix - scrape now best you can and buy some cheap paint and put on one quick coat over whatever is there. This will save you much work in the future.

[Dooglas]

I assume you are proposing to defer the bottom paint to save money. What other maintenance are you planning to defer to save money? At some point you will need to be realistic with yourself about the costs of ownership of a particular boat, and whether that is workable for you.

[ramblinrod]

Originally Posted by Dooglas

I assume you are proposing to defer the bottom paint to save money. What other maintenance are you planning to defer to save money? At some point you will need to be realistic with yourself about the costs of ownership of a particular boat, and whether that is workable for you.

This.

The real question is, why don’t you want to paint the bottom now, so the boat will sail well and won’t hamper your learning to make her go. If you can’t afford to paint the bottom (and perform other regular maintenance when she’s needs it), then you can’t afford to be a boater. Sell it before you wreck it.

Neglecting the bottom won’t really wreck the boat, but it is a part of boating you should be prepared to do when needed. Just like changing oil, filters, impellers, zincs, repairing and replacing sails, compound polish and wax, varnish and oil, replacing stuff as it breaks, wears out or becomes outdated.

Your 27 ft boat, in pristine condition will cost about $2K per year to keep it that way. If it is less than pristine, it will cost more to make it so, so that it only costs $2000 a year to maintain it.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by ramblinrod

Your 27 ft boat, in pristine condition will cost about $2K per year to keep it that way. If it is less than pristine, it will cost more to make it so, so that it only costs $2000 a year to maintain it.

I really, really disagree with this.

No way will it cost $2,000 to maintain.

I paid $2,000 for my boat and it's also 27' long.

I've had it for 7 years and besides replacing the mainsail, the diesel, etc it pretty much only costs the slip fee.

I may pull it this year for a bottom job since the last one I did was the Winter of 2014/15. The paint went on in 2015

I also painted the topside hull that year. The topside hull paint was $88.00

[Dooglas]

Originally Posted by thomm225

No way will it cost $2,000 to maintain.

And what is the cost of repowering a 27' sailboat? 10% of $2000 (your purchase price) is $200. Times 7 is $1,400. Hard to repower and buy a new mainsail for less than that. Seriously, I have found the old adage of 10% of the value of the boat in maintenance each year is usually reasonably close to the mark (except with very old boats, especially wood). Clearly that can vary quite a bit depending how much of the labor you do yourself - but that is really just another way of paying for maintenance. Those sorts of generalities also vary a lot with a recently purchased used boat which can be well maintained, or have considerable deferred maintenance, as both your boat and the OP's evidently had.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Dooglas

And what is the cost of repowering a 27' sailboat? 10% of $2000 (your purchase price) is $200. Times 7 is $1,400. Hard to repower and buy a new mainsail for less than that. Seriously, I have found the old adage of 10% of the value of the boat in maintenance each year is usually reasonably close to the mark (except with very old boats, especially wood). Clearly that can vary quite a bit depending how much of the labor you do yourself - but that is really just another way of paying for maintenance. Those sorts of generalities also vary a lot with a recently purchased used boat which can be well maintained, or have considerable deferred maintenance, as both your boat and the OP's evidently had.

The key word here is maintenance..

I bought my boat ($2,000), replaced the diesel ( $1,550 for new outboard) and the mainsail ($1,600) all in the first few months while still sailing.

So that's $5,150.

The maintenance has been a few oil changes. $15.00
Impellers. $40.00
Spark Plug. $2.00
Fuel Filter. $12.00
2 Bottom Paint Jobs $800
Topside Paint. $88.00
Other Paint, $100
Stanchion Base not yet installed est. $100.
Dyneema/Polyester Lifeline. $200

Total $1,357

This over 7 years is less than $200 per year

And btw, I never polish, wax, or varnish because that would mess up the look of my boat.

[Group9]

The bottom will just have more growth, and be more trouble to get off. but, it doesn’t hurt the boat, just the person cleaning it later.

[Suijin]

Originally Posted by thomm225

The key word here is maintenance..

I bought my boat ($2,000), replaced the diesel ( $1,550 for new outboard) and the mainsail ($1,600) all in the first few months while still sailing.

So that's $5,150.

That’s all maintenance. Notice the word “replaced”. Yes you did it when you bought the boat but that’s irrelevant.

Rod’s figure is more or less accurate, whether it’s $1,500 for one boat or $2,500 for another, and of course it varies year to year, but over the long haul that’s about the average.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Suijin

That’s all maintenance. Notice the word “replaced”. Yes you did it when you bought the boat but that’s irrelevant.

Rod’s figure is more or less accurate, whether it’s $1,500 for one boat or $2,500 for another, and of course it varies year to year, but over the long haul that’s about the average.

I don't know all the "rules" folks makeup and then refer to them as maintenance costs. Any marine service provider is going to give you a higher number for maintenance costs

I've spent maybe $100 - $200 per year for the last three years which doesn't include new purchases for things I just wanted for the boat which were not for maintenance. This for coastal cruising.

I had a head strap on my jib break this year for example. (then the jib came down at the most inopportune time) It ripped off on one side of the sail. The other side is still attached. I happened to have resewed that side this passed Winter. I then tied the strapped to the shackle on the furler top swivel and taped it. (this after retrieving the halyard which wasn't easy) It's working great for now. I may need to buy some more needles etc to fix it later. This was maybe a month or so ago

Like the mainsail I bought. The old one was still usable but I just don't like sailing with old beat up, blown out sails......... not that the new one helped performance that much

Plus I'm still trying to decide how much money I want to put into this boat. I was only going to keep it for a couple years but it's been 7 years now

Now if I decide to fix it up more I'll be buying a new dodger and frame$2,200, maybe a new gen anchor $350, new tiller $250?, and more paint $500. Or I could sail it another 3 years or so as is

[2big2small]

Here’s my experience. I’ve always kept my hulls clean, never knew what it was like to sail a dirty one until a couple of years ago where I decided to skip the antifouling because I wasn’t going to sail that much anyway. I ended up skipping two years and saved about 50%, not the 66% that you’d expect. Why? Because it is more work and I ended up having to reapply a primer coat. I also spent more on fuel since the boat was much slower. And I also paid a diver twice during those two years. We did dive ourselves to replace the anodes at regular intervals.

Would I do it again? Maybe. It was nice to save the 50%, not so to have more work. But it was definitely awful to loose 30% of speed at its worst, even if only for the little island hopping we did.

Ultimately we had to sail over a thousand miles again but it didn’t work out to obtain a spot to get lifted. That’s when we paid a diver a second time and I myself scraped everything I could reach from the surface. This represented about 14 h total of scraping between me and the diver. After all that we still had a 20% speed hit over the next 1,200 miles or so where we then had the opportunity to haul out.

So the moral of the story is that you’re going to avoid a lot of hard work if you paint now, and that if you don’t, you run the risk of getting caught off guard with a dog slow boat when you do have to sail or want to. But you’re going to indeed save money over all, even though not as much as you may hope for especially if you skip it only once starting with your current paint that’s already “dead.” It might actually turn out to be very little money.

[thomm225]

Looks like the OP isn't going on any long cruises soon, so he should be fine waiting another year.

So far, I repaint my bottom every 3 years. It's due this year but I may go one more not sure yet

The OP is just up the bay a 100 miles or so from me and if anything it's a bit colder up there and the water a bit less salty

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Suijin

That’s all maintenance. Notice the word “replaced”. Yes you did it when you bought the boat but that’s irrelevant.

Rod’s figure is more or less accurate, whether it’s $1,500 for one boat or $2,500 for another, and of course it varies year to year, but over the long haul that’s about the average.

This number would be closer to accurate on the beach cats that I raced due to the costs of new sails, carbon fiber masts, new rigging, replacement shackles and spinlocks, sail kote, cam cleats (I used them to hold the spinnaker sheet at times), traveler bearings, replacement tramps, and replacement harnesses, etc

[ramblinrod]

Originally Posted by thomm225

I really, really disagree with this.

No way will it cost $2,000 to maintain.

I paid $2,000 for my boat and it's also 27' long.

I've had it for 7 years and besides replacing the mainsail, the diesel, etc it pretty much only costs the slip fee.

I may pull it this year for a bottom job since the last one I did was the Winter of 2014/15. The paint went on in 2015

I also painted the topside hull that year. The topside hull paint was $88.00

Anyone can neglect or defer maintenance and claim it doesn’t cost anything.

Anyone can put 100s of hours into maintenance and claim it doesn’t cost anything.

Anyone can do crappy work and claim it doesn’t cost anything.

All 3 assertions above are completely false.

One must pay for proper maintenance one way or the other, or they are just preparing a boat for the scrapyard.

My definition of maintenance is repairing or replacing items (properly) that have broken, worn out, are nearing end of recommended service life, or have become outdated.

If for example your electronics are 20 years old, and only half working, have you really maintained your boat properly for $50/yr?

No, you’ve neglected maimtenance spending only 50 bucks a year.

Same goes for sails, engine, gelcoat, electrical, plumbing, standing and running rigging, etc., etc., etc.

PS, a well maintained FRP boat doesn’t require painting.

If you did the job right, it likely took about 100 hours. Even if you have no other skills than ability to paint (which is not likely) your time is worth at least $20/hours. That’s $2000 worth of maintenance alone.

Oh, did you paint the boat in the water? If not factor in haulout, blocking, yard fees, lift in.

Oh did you finger paint the boat? Then factor in supplies, safety equipment, and materials.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by ramblinrod

If for example your electronics are 20 years old, and only half working, have you really maintained your boat properly for $50/yr?

PS, a well maintained FRP boat doesn’t require painting.

Oh, did you paint the boat in the water? If not factor in haulout, blocking, yard fees, lift in.

Oh did you finger paint the boat? Then factor in supplies, safety equipment, and materials.

My 20-30 year old electronics to include Depth, GPS, VHF are working fine. I did lose one GPS though that failed. I bought 2 handheld Sunnto Compasses for backup and taking bearings on ships etc to determine how fast they are going as compared to me prior to a cross

My boat is 44 years old and was painted prior to me owning it so I had to sand it down to gelcoat totally on the topside hull and repaint

Haul out was $200-$300 in 2014/2015

Equipment to paint were a few brushes, rollers, pan, and mask. I included the price of the paint in my list in the post above. The Topside paint though was $88.00/gallon. Another test to see how well it will hold up

The point is for a boat like mine that I'm using to see how seriously I'm going to get into cruising it simply doesn't take that much to maintain. So maybe I spent $8,000 or so to own a boat for 10 years. I think that's a pretty good deal

As far as my sail strap jury rig, that's an ongoing test. I have a 90% storm jib in like new condition if needed. It has a grommet the strap attaches to whereas my jib just had the strap straight connect to the shackle.