Bottom Paints (freshwater)
While there are differences between the effectiveness of bottom paints or antifouling coatings (the product itself), each paints effectiveness will depend upon where you're located, and the water temperature of where you're going to sail. For instance, antifouling paint will behave very differently on a boat located in saltwater vs freshwater. In fact, most paints are formulated for one or the other. Other factors to consider are the average water temperature (ie: warm vs cold), with saltwater appearing to create a wide variety of effective results, as well as how much water movement the boat experiences. For those of you who are interested in reading some good reviews and test results, Practical Sailor publishes annual with 2005 being their 14th consecutive year. Of the 54 paints they tested in 2005, none were for Fresh Water Bottom Paints. Date: March 4, 2005 I sail in Lake Michigan which is fresh water. Water temps vary widely--40's in May and 70's in September. When we bought the boat in 1987 we used a tin based paint which, now illegal in the US, worked great. We then switched to Bottomkote, an alabative paint, which also worked very good but after a few coats were put on, it began to buildup and flake off in chunks when new paint was applied. Besides all the time it took to scrape and prep the bottom each spring before painting, it was messy and left the bottom poc marked. In 1998 I bit the bullet and stripped the hull down to bare fiberglass and applied VC17 (by Interlux)--2 coats the first season, 1 there after--with good results. We did have some really good slime and grass buildup by the end of the summer. In 2003 Interlux came out with VC17m Extra which is specifically formulated to resist the slime and grass buildup. While we don't get the grass, we still get a little slime by mid summer but my 14 year old can take it off in about a half hour--for a nominal fee of course. I chose VC17 because I knew many other boaters using it here in Chicago who used and liked it. Albeit they were racers and had someone clean their bottoms at least once per summer, I find that wiping the slime off once a summer is far more desirable than all the scraping and mess with an alabative. It's a Teflon and Copper based paint that goes on very thin (read less buildup). We put on 1 coat per season (6 month summer). There is virtually no prep involved other than masking (our bottom is pressure washed in the fall when hauled). You can wet sand it if you want to keep it really smooth like the racers, but we don't. After switching from our flaky bottom, I found we were sailing at least a half knot faster and I spend less time in the yard.
From: Paul Uhl endvr32@endeavourowners.com
