Calling 36'TriCabin Owners - How much Bottom Paint?

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 7:57 am

Got more holes in me then a uniflite with blisters , Hurting but doing good.

mytrojan · Post by **mytrojan** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 8:29 am

With a wood bottom I use 1 gallon and 1 quart of Interlux.

aweimer · Post by **aweimer** » Mon Apr 25, 2011 11:26 pm

Getting mine blasted off this week. 4 coats of barrier and 2 coats anti-foul. Looking forward to it. In some areas on mine she has almost 1/4 of a inch of paint. I'm expecting almost 1000lb lighter. I don't think its ever been blasted off in 36 years.

alexander38 · Post by **alexander38** » Tue Apr 26, 2011 3:06 am

what's the price on that Aaron ?

risctaker · Post by **risctaker** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 4:39 pm

I bought a soda blaster last weekend and plan on doing the same thing. Do you recommend the "Fine" or "Coarse" grade of soda for the bottom. I don't want to begin penetrating the gelcoat.

aweimer · Post by **aweimer** » Sun May 01, 2011 6:11 pm

alexander38 wrote:what's the price on that Aaron ?

Its expensive. $3000 all in.

I'm in fresh water and asked to use albatative paint (water paint) and it wears off over the season. This way i can power wash it off at the end of the year and apply two new coats myself and get zero build up. It is however a little less protection but in my area it will be totally fine.

captainmaniac · Post by **captainmaniac** » Sun May 01, 2011 10:32 pm

aweimer wrote:This way i can power wash it off at the end of the year and apply two new coats myself and get zero build up. It is however a little less protection but in my area it will be totally fine.

Why do you want to wash it all off at the end of each season and repaint? In terms of ablative paint, I assume you are talking Micron CSC or equivalent. If so, apply 3-4 coats to start (first coat in an off colour, then remaining coats in the colour you want). Each winter, do nothing until the off colour starts to show through. When it does, touch up those (high wear) spots with another coat or two. Typically they will be chine, keel, perhaps struts and rudders. Where the off colour isn't showing, you still have lots of good paint so no need to overcoat.

That way you will go through less than a quart a year, not 2+ gallons.

aweimer · Post by **aweimer** » Mon May 02, 2011 1:37 am

I have 4 coats of epoxy barrier coat, this will not come off. then 2 coats of water based bottom paint. This will ware off yearly.

The barrier is off color, the bottom paint is black. Basically i will be taking it back down to the 4 barrier coats yearly, until they need to be replaced, but being expoxy paint i think its pretty perminate.

wowzer52 · Post by **wowzer52** » Mon May 02, 2011 4:53 pm

Just wondering why you would take the paint off each year.

aweimer · Post by **aweimer** » Mon May 02, 2011 5:06 pm

At about 25lb a gallon I was trying to cut down on the weight. It had close to 1/4 of an inch of bottom paint on it. 35yr old, 2 coats / year, x 25lb= 1750. But i'm sure it was sanded down at some point.

I just dont want the build up year after year to keep the weight down.

Boat will probably set higher

wowzer52 · Post by **wowzer52** » Mon May 02, 2011 5:21 pm

When the paint is put on and dry it weighs almost nothing.

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Mon May 02, 2011 6:29 pm

That copper adds a fair amount . But I would not worry about it

captainmaniac · Post by **captainmaniac** » Mon May 02, 2011 8:52 pm

You have said ablative / water paint, but what paint are you planning on using? Maybe that will help me understand better.

A +1 on what wowzer says as well... most antifouling paints include a solvent that evaporates once exposed to air... so only a portion of the weight of the full (sealed) can really gets added to the boat. Add to that the fact that ALL paints will rinse / scrape / leach away to some degree over time... so I doubt you are really carrying anywhere near that weight.

I have a hard time imagining a full 1/4" thickness of bottom paint!

A couple of years back I stripped the bottom of my F32. It was about 30 years old at the time - I bought it around 2000. I don't know if it was ever stripped down before me owning it, but I scraped and then hand sanded down to bare glass (100 hours of labour). Thickest paint I saw was perhaps 1/16" - 3/32". I did the job over top of plastic sheets, and scooped / vacuumed up all residue and dumped it into garbage bags. In the end the paint I collected weighed about 40-50 or so pounds, so even with dust that might have escaped I doubt I removed any more than 100 pounds of crud.

risctaker · Post by **risctaker** » Tue May 03, 2011 11:33 am

The bottom of the boat I'm working on now has 40 years of old bottom paint on it and in quite a few spots it is peeling /chipping off and exposing the actual depth of the accumulated paint. I estimate at LEAST 1/4" of accumulated paint. I'm getting quotes on media blasting right now.

aweimer · Post by **aweimer** » Tue May 03, 2011 7:11 pm

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... sNum=10303

Hydocoat is what i'm using.

I did however get a bad call from the guy doing the bottom today. Apparently there is a bad spot within the resess that the starboard shaft goes into. It appeared to be a blister but after working at it he uncovered a quarter sized hole in an area the size of a baseball that was damaged. Gelcoat was bubbled off and the fiberglass there was only 1/2 to 3/4 thick and he could see through into the bildge. So now there are some repairs that need to be made. Also he found to cracks in the hull that are approxmately 4' long down along the keal coming from the bow. He is going to grind those out and fill them with fiberglass as well.

I'm totally baffled at the spot in the resess area by the shaft log, I was under the impression the hull on the Tri-Cabin was 2" thick, solid. I guess in these little resesses they are not that thick. Something to look for i suppose. He did only find two minor blisters as well. Outside of the damaged spot the guy seems impressed its in that good of shape for being 35 years old.