Bottom Paint

[Brad Young]

DarBay our  1988 C34 is going for its first bottom job.

We are going to use Trinidad SR. That is what the marine yard recommends for
the sea of cortez and Practical Sailor gave it pretty good reviews.

I am looking for how many coats to put on and if there is anyway to tell if the
prep and paint job is done correctly.
Example
When you paint on fiberglass can you get orange peel etc ..
Any thoughts would be grealty appreicated

[jmnpe]

Hi Brad,

I used Trinidad SR on our Stamas 44 while we had it down on the Texas Gulf coast with the boat located in Seabrook, TX. It gave excellent service: no hard growth anywhere for almost 6 years, and no slime anywhere for about 3 years or more, and after that only on the top foot or so of hull where the sunlight could get to it. It's very good stuff.

When we did the first bottom job with the Trinidad SR, we paid to have the many, many coats of old hard paint removed from the hull and we put one new coat everywhere, and a second coat along the waterline and on the rudder. As far as proper preparation, Petit has all of that info in some of their DIY booklets on their bottom paints. Check their website.

Now that we are back in the Catalina 34 fold, I will be doing a bottom job on Otra Vez this fall, and will probably go with Trinidad SR even up here in the DFW area in fresh water as our summer water temperatures and slime are about equal to the gulf coast or Sea of Cortez.

John

[Brad Young]

Thanks John.

1) I will get all the old paint off. 
2) Is there any advantage to putting two coats everywhere?

side note I lived in DFW for about 26 years (White Rock Lake area)Sailed in lake Texoma and Lake Rayhubbard

[jmnpe]

Hi Brad,

I guess it's Old Home Week here on the C34 page You would have loved that last 2 weekends on the water: 100 F and plenty of humidity

With hard bottom paint, the active ingredients have to be able to leach out through the paint structure. At some point, too thick a layer of paint could conceivably inhibit the leaching action from the deepest layers of paint. I don't know where that crossover point is, but I know I'm not an expert...... I would consult the Petit web site for expert guidance on that matter.

John

[Ron Hill]

Brad : Old Chinese proverb say "The more bottom paint you put on, the more you'll have to take off !"
All of the paint companies recommend 2 coats, but then they are in the business of selling paint !!
A thought