Association Forum - Paint selection

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
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.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

Capri 25 Specific Forum

Paint selection

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Fleet
Navigator

Member Avatar

USA
151 Posts

Initially Posted - 01/20/2009 : 06:20:16

After reading several posts on various bottom paints, I'm even more confused. For my Capri, I want to paint the bottom, sides and top this spring. For the bottom paint, I want a paint that is appropriate for racing but leans more toward durability and ease of application. What paint is the best compromise for racing and durability? What paint for sides and top? My top has not been painted berfore. Do I need a primer? My Capri is stored wet and is sailed in fresh water only. Thanks.

Fleet

Fleet
Kamikaze
1983 Hull #397
Lake Guntersville, AL

Edited by - on

joearcht
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
241 Posts

Response Posted - 01/20/2009 : 08:16:08

I don't have your answers but I like you questions. I'm in a similar circumstance, year round sailing in fresh water and club racing. Right now I have VC-17 on the bottom and it needs a new coat. I'll probably stay with it unless someone comes along with a real convincing argument to change. I too would like to paint the rest of my hull soon, but I'm not interested in painting my deck yet. I will share something I learned recently studying the issue of hull friction through the water. I sail in light wind conditions alot so it seems to me that hull friction is a significant issue for light wind sailing when you don't have enough power in the sails to push the boat up to hull speed and beyond. The reason this came to my attention is because I just bought a MC Scow to play with and it needs some work. So do I wax the hull or what? It will be dry sailed so no one puts paint on the bottom. When I studied this though I found that it seems the coefficient of drag or in other words the friction is greater for a waxed gel coat going through the water than a sanded gel coat with something like 400 to 600 grit. The physics of the situation is that with the waxed or really slick hull (teflon) the molecules of water drag along the wax and produce friction. With the sanded surface a layer of molecules attaches to the rougher surface and the friction is between water molecule and water molecule. And guess what? The water to water has less friction than the water to wax. The visible difference can be seen when you put a drop of water on a waxed surface and it beads up verses spreads out and coats the surface with something sanded. I'm no physicist, but if I understood what I was reading, it seems to me that the fastest hull is going to be something rougher at the molecular level than something slicker. Hence I'm going to sand the bottom of the scow and see what happens. Applying this logic to my keel boat, I will probably stay with a paint coat that allows me to rough it up a little when I clean the hull. I have to add however, that this doesn't seem to jive with my clubs PHRF rules. Seems that if you use a bottom paint with teflon in it then you are going to get a penalty added to your rating. So go figure, I'll be interested in hearing what others have learned.

Edited by - on

SailCO26
Captain

Members Avatar

USA
457 Posts

Response Posted - 01/20/2009 : 08:40:00

I race a wet-sailed fresh water boat and use VC17 on the bottom. Been pleased with the results, and will stick with it.

Hull in great shape, no info to supply here (fortunately for me).

UN-fortunately, the PO painted the deck with who-knows-what and it's a skating rink up there when wet. I have 1G of Kiwi-Grip that I'm going to apply once it gets warm and I'll be able to give a review of that. I tried a few spots of something like "Skid-no-more" from WM and was less than impressed. Still have almost 2Q if anyone's interested...

Jim.

Edited by - on

Fleet
Navigator

Members Avatar

USA
151 Posts

Response Posted - 01/20/2009 : 11:37:01

VC17 appears to be a popular choice. I plan on using a one part Polyurethane for the sides and I'm going to leave the deck alone. Now lets discuss the many blisters I have. The Capri sat in the water for 3 years. Obviously I have to repair the blisters but the question becomes do I strip down and apply a barrier coat? The expense and potential problems of applying a barrier coat with a hull that is not perfectly dry worries me. Assuming I repair the current blisters, sand, prime and VC17 the bottom, am I doomed to perpetual blisters if I don't apply a barrier coat?

Fleet

Edited by - on

Ericson33
Admiral

Members Avatar

USA
892 Posts

Response Posted - 01/20/2009 : 13:00:17

A little advice:
1. I have VC17 on the bootom of our boat, the paint is thin and it goes on really nice with a small roller, read the directions and you will not go back if you need bottom paint on your boat.

2. Hull - I painted our hull with a single part polyurathane, it was cheap and was the best option for our application at the time. If you have the extra doe use awlgrip. The paint is far superior to anything out on the market and the price of the paint reflects it.

I sanded the hull down with 200, then applied several coats of primer on the hull, sanding and filling between coats before applying the paint. The time you will spend on the hull will detract you from ever painting anything else of this size. I used a spray gun to apply the primer and paint, everythig was masked off several times, and your legs are going to kill you from stepping up and down that dammed ladder several thousand times. The paint went on really well. I had some orange peel, these areas were sanded and re-sprayed. The paint is soft compared to a true two part epoxy coating, thus the change to Awlgrip. It takes a ton of time to prep, so if you are going to spend the time, use the best product. (it might of cost me $300.00 more for the correct paint) 2 weeks time.

Deck - My deck needed some repair in spots but it still was the old gelcoat. I didn't want to paint the whole deck - re: removing everything attached and rebedding all of the blocks, bolts, camcleats, ect. I opted to re-gelcoat the deck in the places that needed the repair done, I even made a mold for the nonskid pattern to replace the warnout spots. Matching the color was the hardest part of the job, I did the color matching on the inside of the cabin - No UV damage, and over the last 3 years it has faded right with the rest of the deck.

Prepare yourself - It takes allot of time to prep the boat, I can not stress this enough. Total time was a full winter preping the boat and I applied the paint in the spring when it was warm outside.

MC Dude - sand the hull with 400 wet and dry, then move to 600 - when you think that you have a super smooth hull spray a light coat of black laquire and long block sand the hull again with the 400, you will see all of the pin holes in the gelcoat, and any waves in the hull. Here use micro ballons to re-prep the hull, and start the process all over. A correctly sanded hull will produce you better results on the race coarse, but you have to be a really good sailor to see the difference.

Hope this helps, if you would like to see some phots I have a ton of them,

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
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.