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..........................................................--- Bottom Paint ---
Since we had planned on some extended trips over the next couple years where the boat would be in the water we decided to put bottom paint on it and since it would be easier now vs. later also decided to put on a barrier coat first. It took 4 days to accomplish this and they were pretty long days, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but the bottom was in good shape to start with.
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Off the trailer..
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Used a rear bunk I had made before.
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The front was lifted with the car lift and the blocking is just a safety factor.
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Made 2 new bunks that....
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...are positioned where the ones on the trailer are. Removed the centerboard...
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....so that it could be painted along with the slot it goes up into.
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Used wax and grease remover before and after sanding.
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The green line is tape that is one inch above the original water line stripe. We sit a little lower in the water with all of out cruising gear and food, water and fuel rations for 30 day trips. We wanted bottom paint up out of the water so raised the water line.
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Used hard and soft sanding pads to ...
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... sand next to the tape line. Sanded left and un-sanded to the right.
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Here the bottom has been sanded with the DA sander to a dull finish. You need this so that the epoxy barrier paint has something to grap hold of.
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This is how I raised the waterline. Put dots 1 inch up every foot or so. Hold the tape vertical as the distance from the old line to the new will be different depending on the angle/slope of the side of the boat in that area.
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I ran the tape along the dots (green tape) and then added some wider blue tape above so that I didn't have to be as careful painting.
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80 grit pads for the DA. These are from my auto body work.
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Left arrow...sanding pad. Lower right arrow....DA sander that I ran at a pretty slow speed to keep the dust down (wore a mast). Middle arrow...my best friend as I was able to roll around and do a lot of the sanding sitting down. Important when you are 66.
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80 grit that I used on the sanding pads.
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You can see how the sanded bottom is duller than the top. I sanded the whole bottom in one day and was too beat to paint the next day, so worked on other things that day.
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Then I put on 5 coats of paint the next day (long day ...9 am to 9 p.m.). First was 2....
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...coats of Sea Hawk's Tuff Stuff Barrier coat. I like this stuff and felt the $120 for it was well spent. I would hate to have to sand off bottom paint to put this on. I had to sand anyway, so ...
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... for $120 and a couple more hours painting the boat has a barrier coat on it. 2 gallons easily gave me 2 coats.
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Next came 2 coats of...
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Sea Hawks Cukote Biocide Plus Self-Polishing Bottom Paint in black. Barely got the 2 coats out of 1 gallon.
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Then came one coat of the same bottom paint in dark blue.
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The plan is that when it wears through to the black I'll touch it up. This paint is made....
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.. for trailered boats and can go in and out of the water and still work. I was able to put the 5 coats of barrier coat and bottom paint on in one day as it is very dry where we live and I had good heat in the shop, so the coats dried faster. You might have to do this over 2 days and if so read how that should be done.
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Next I moved the bunks and....
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... painted those areas
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At the same time I gave the centerboard 3 coats of bottom paint (shown before paint). Due to its construction it didn't need barrier paint.
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The trailer back under the boat.
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To get the boat to fit in the shop under the ceiling with the solar panels on ...
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...I had to pull the wheels/tires and put the hubs on those platforms with castors. It is easier to move with those anyway. It took 3 hard days to paint the boat, but we feel it will be worth it and like the looks of it too.
