Bottom Painting
 

Can you apply ablative bottom paint directly over awlgrip? Well, I called awlgrip and they said I needed several coats of an epoxy barrier paint first so I guess that answers that question. I was wondering if it was really necessary to paint the sides of the boat from the point they touch the water to the stern. I really like the look of the hull without bottom paint and the sides would be easy brush off. I was planning on painting the stern below the engine bracket. Can u just paint the bottom if you use the boat freqently? Geoffrey

Re: Bottom Painting
 

Regarding the sides of the boat...I would say this depends on where you are at.

In south west FL. the stuff grows over night and if you were gone just a week, the scrub job would be taking away from fish time.

Up north when living on the great lakes, I would say go ahead an do it the way you like.

Yes to the barrier coat.

Have fun,

Re: Bottom Painting
 

Thank you. The boat will be kept in Boston around the corner from my condo so I will be down there often. Was looking through the galleries at other 20's for ideas but very few are bottom painted.

Re: Bottom Painting
 

Hmmmm... guess I will have to find out if the PO of my boat remembers what he painted it with. I was thinking that I'd just need to lightly sand and apply bottom paint, but it is apparently not that simple. I tried to keep my Lund down at BPK without bottom paint last winter, even with record cold it was amazing (to a northerner like me) how fast it grew.
Anyone have recomendations for an ablative style paint (never again want to spend days scraping off multiple layers of the "hard stuff") that will work well in the Keys? It isn't so critical up here, I could get away with just painting the top 12" around the Sisu and leave it in for a year at a time, that sure won't work down there!

Bruce

Re: Bottom Painting
 

Go to West Marine and pick up a couple of free catalogs on Interlux paints. Everything you need to know for prep and application. I used their ablative bottom paint on unpainted fiberglass and it seemed to work well, but I do not have a lot of hours in the water as of yet. I know a lot of people use a barrier coat epoxy system and then paint.