It is not often that you need to paint the topsides of your boat. Well-cared-for topside paint lasts for 5 to 10 years if you want the paint looking like new. If you don’t mind a little fading, the paint can last for 10 or more years. Sometimes the original gelcoat lasts even longer. However, when you do decide that it is time to repaint, there are some considerations beyond the color of the paint.
Painting Requires Boat To Be Put On Hard
When you paint the topsides, you will need to put the boat on the hard. This is unavoidable. Whether you are doing the painting yourself or at a boat yard, you should to do the bottom paint at the same time. Bottom paint uses biocide to keep barnacles and other marine growth from adhering to the bottom. When the bottom paint is out of the water for over 72 hours, it looses its anti-fouling strength. So, you either need to be able to do the work quickly or do both the topsides and the bottom paint together.
This is an often overlooked aspect of painting the topsides. People who choose to only do the topsides in order to save money are then surprised at the amount of marine growth on the bottom after putting the boat back in the water. This is usually because the boat was out of the water for too long.
If you do want to skip bottom painting, you need to make sure the boat yard will have the boat back in the water within 72 hours. This requirement will certainly put a premium on the paint work, so for most boaters it makes more sense to save up and do both at the same time. If not, you will find yourself pulling the boat out of the water much sooner than expected and wasting money. Experienced boaters usually have to bottom painted when the boat is out of the water.
What Bottom Paint To Use
If you do need to paint the bottom, you will need to decide on a bottom paint. There are now lots of options. We are not going to do a bottom paint survey. However, we can say that many people we know are reporting great results from SeaHawk Biocop. Right now, this is hot bottom paint. You can do a Google search and check out the reviews and other people’s experience.
Happy Boating