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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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dingy bottom paint

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weluvlife
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Initially Posted - 05/17/2006 : 23:55:31

Hi,

I just picked up an old Sabot, similar to an El Toro. The Gel Coat is flaking off in various places on the bottom. I was thinking about painting it to improve the appearance and to protect the bottom from more gelcoat damage.

What is a real tough paint that I could use here? Some paint that would hold up to beaching the boat?

Interlux 2000 epoxy? Some hard deck paint?

Thanks,

Mark Eichman
Lake Don Pedro,CA
www.lakedonpedrosailingclub.org
'86 c25 TR, SK

Edited by - on

Leon Sisson
Master Marine Consultant

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1893 Posts

Response Posted - 05/18/2006 : 08:49:07

Mark,

I have a somewhat similar dinghy -- a plywood and fiberglass D4. It sounds like you're planning to address two separate issues here. One is the cosmetic appearance of the hull. The other is damage from beaching. To protect/repair from beaching, I suggest building up an ablative layer of fiberglass and epoxy. This is how the beach catamaran crowd has been dealing with bottom abrasion for decades, and that's the method I used on my D4. Once that's been taken care of, you might look into some of the one-part epoxy or linear polyurithane (I hope I got that right) paints. I use Pettit Easy-Poxy because it's, well, easy. However, it starts to look dull and faded after a two to four years. I've read the newer competitors are more durable.

-- Leon Sisson

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weluvlife
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Response Posted - 05/18/2006 : 10:08:09

Hi Leon,

Thank you for your response. You've given me some new ideas.
You mention the layer of fiberglass; would the procedure be to lay one layer of fiberglass cloth over the bottom of the boat, and then paint resin into/over this? If this is the case, does this sand out smooth?

By the way, have you come across a convenient way of storing the dingy at the slip with your boat? It's so awkward to drag it up onto the deck.

Thanks,

Mark

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Leon Sisson
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1893 Posts

Response Posted - 05/18/2006 : 17:25:02

Mark,<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>You mention the layer of fiberglass; would the procedure be to lay one layer of fiberglass cloth over the bottom of the boat, and then paint resin into/over this? If this is the case, does this sand out smooth?</i><hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">Here's a bit more detail, but without actually seeing your Sabot. First, you need to identify what part of the bottom is going to get 'sanded' by beaching. If you can't tell now, then don't worry about it, and just use the boat until you can tell. Once you start see to where the bottom is worn down to glass fibers, you can plan your ablative fix. Let's say for example you decide to reinforce a 12"x24" oval area with five layers of glass cloth. Start by sanding the gelcoat off that area, down to fiberglass. Cut five oval pieces of fiberglass cloth, the largest matching the sanded area, and each of the others an inch or so smaller on all sides. You can start by applying cloth or resin first, which ever works best for you. Start with the largest piece of cloth. As soon as each layer of cloth is wetted out, apply the next smaller piece. After the final layer is wet, let the epoxy cure just until it won't clog #60 sandpaper. At that point, rough sand the surface fuz by hand or with the paper wrapped around a soft sponge. Rough sand the jaggy edges of the cloth with the paper wrapped around a hard block to fair the layers into each other. For final smoothing, you can go either or both of two ways.

1.) Continue sanding away cloth with ever finer grit until you decide it's ready for paint.

2.) Mix up some thickened epoxy, and apply it with a body putty squeegee to fill the (rough sanded) weave and jagged edges of the fiberglass cloth. Once you're satified you've applied enough thichened resin to fill the low points to your satisfaction, let it cure to just sandable, and proceed as in step 1.

A key point is to get your sanding done as early in the cure as possible. WEST epoxy typically cures sandable in 8 to 12 hours. It continues to cure harder for a week. If you wait a week before sanding, you might as well be trying to sand away steel!

-- Leon Sisson

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weluvlife
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Response Posted - 05/18/2006 : 22:51:22

Hello Leon,

Very good explanation. Thank you for all your time.
I feel armed and ready :)

Thanks,

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.