Bottom Preparation

What kind of paint should I use?

The type of paint that you should use depends on several factors. First, you should consider the following: What are the fouling conditions of the water that your boat will be in? How long is your boat in the water for... just the boating season in NE or year round? How often do you use your boat? Is your boat a fast or slow moving vessel? Once you figure out these variables, it's possible to find a range of paints that can suit your particular need. To simply define the types of paints available, there are Ablative paints and Hard paints. Ablative paints are designed to shed layers, much like a bar of soap, to keep the surface polished and free of fouling as well as to reduce the buildup of paint on the bottom of your boat. These paints reduce the amount of sanding that needs to be done between yearly applications. Hard paints are designed to release their fouling inhibitors over a certain period of time, leaving a full layer of paint on the boat that needs to be more heavily sanded before annual re-application. We carry and recommend Sea Hawk brand antifouling paints, but if you wish to supply your own paint at the time of service, consult with the marine store to choose the paint that will best suit your needs.

Should I paint my boat every year?

This question can be answered once you figure out what paint it is that you are going to use. Some paints are designed to release their antifouling agents all at once over the course of one season and must be re-applied prior to re-launch. Some paints are designed to provide longer lasting antifouling properties that leach out slowly and evenly over a period of time. Some of these paints may be layered to provide one season or more of protection per coat. Again, it all comes down to the paint you use based on the factors involved in making that choice.

I have a boat that has never been painted... what do I do... barrier coat or just paint?

If your boat has never been painted there are a couple of options for you to consider. We all know that gel coat is a porous substance and therefore over time water can be absorbed and do nasty things like cause osmotic blistering. The best way to help prevent this is to apply epoxy barrier coat before applying antifouling paint. Another school of thought is to simply scuff the bottom with sandpaper, wipe with thinner/dewaxer to remove mold release wax, tape off the waterline, and apply at least two coats of antifouling paint. The main consideration is what level of protection you want to achieve for your boat over the course of your ownership. When a boat has not been painted, we do charge an additional fee for marking off the waterline for the first time. If your boat does not come with an obviously marked factory waterline, the suggestion would be to leave the boat in the water for two or three days to develop a slight waterline, or to put it in the water and mark several points on either side with a pencil. In any case, we take what we consider to be the actual waterline and raise that mark roughly 2 inches all the way around to provide your boat with maximum protection. Check with your boat manufacturer to be sure that scuffing the gel coat doesn't adversely affect your warranty.

What if my boat is on a trailer?

We all know that painting boats can be dirty business, but if it's sitting on a trailer it can be downright nasty. When we come to your home or to the yard where your boat is stored to paint it and it is on a trailer, we are limited in how we can prepare the bottom. Because of liability reasons, we do not jack boats up off trailers to paint where rollers/ bunkboards are. We use a chip brush and paint up to and around the rollers/ bunkboards. The price that we charge takes all of this into consideration because of the tedious nature of getting under a trailer to sand and paint around all of these rollers/ bunkboards. We do our best to paint around the carpeted bunkboards without having your boat stick to the carpet, but in some cases it happens. The best thing to do is to take your boat off the trailer and put it on blocks and stands. We do not do this because we would have to charge a significant fee to cover the time consideration as well as the increased insurance we would have to carry to perform this service. The bottom line is that the convenience of having someone else squished under your cramped and claustrophobic trailer with sanders and respirators should far outweigh the small areas that we aren't able to paint.

What does the temperature have to be to paint?

As with any paints, antifouling paints are best applied when temperatures have been consistently in the 50's for several days. It isn't just enough for one day to hit 50 degrees because your hull temperature may still be too cold to properly apply the antifouling paint. When it comes to barrier coating and painting, we have to choose the days that we feel are suitable for it or we will not be doing either of us a favor by having a result that is less than 100% effective. We also do not paint on days when there is precipitation.

What is involved in barrier coating?

Barrier coating is a time sensitive series of steps that consists of applying epoxy barrier coat material to achieve a thickness that provides protection against absorption of water and the potential for osmotic blistering of your hull. The product used in barrier coating will determine the number of coats necessary to achieve a suitable thickness to protect your boat. In our case, we only use Sea Hawk brand Tuff Stuff barrier coat epoxy which only requires two coats that can be laid up in a short period of time. In cases where the boat has previously been painted and has been stripped to clean gel coat, we must assess the bottom to determine if there are any blisters or hull damage that need to be repaired before continuing the process for barrier coating. Once a boat is repaired, or if the boat is new, the steps are pretty much straight forward. We must wipe the bottom with thinner/dewaxer to remove mold release wax, sand bottom to scuff for optimum adhesion of barrier coat epoxy, wipe with thinner/dewaxer to remove sanding residue, tape waterline, lay up two coats of Tuff Stuff barrier coat epoxy and at least one coat of antifouling bottom paint. This all must be done within a certain time window in order to achieve the chemical bond necessary to keep the layers of epoxy barrier coat and/or antifouling bottom paint from peeling. We suggest applying at least two coats of ablative antifouling paint to begin with, using a different color than your desired topcoat as an initial indicator coat. For instance, if you want to have a black boat bottom as your finish coat, we would apply a red or blue coat directly over the barrier coat. This would serve the purpose of determining areas from season to season that could simply be touched up with your topcoat color. Check with your boat manufacturer to be sure that scuffing the gel coat doesn't adversely affect your warranty.

What if my bottom paint is chipping or peeling?

This is not an easy question to answer because there could be many reasons. Sometimes it's as simple as whoever it was who was barrier coating or painting your boat to begin with didn't do it right, or as complicated as problems with the underlying fiberglass. If someone didn't remove the mold release wax and properly scuff the bottom, your paint may not stick. The same holds true for barrier coat epoxy, and could also be because the layers were not laid up and the first coat of antifouling bottom paint applied within the specified window of time. In most cases, once the epoxy has dried and the paint has not been applied, the chemical bond will not have been achieved and the paint will not stick. In some cases, the incompatability of the paints that are used year after year (switching brands/types) or not properly preparing the bottom between applications in accordance with manufacturer's specifications can cause the paint to chip or peel. In other cases, it's just a matter of having way too much paint on the bottom because the boat has simply been around for a long time and has had so many coats applied. The best solution to these problems is to have the bottom stripped (soda blasting is suggested), have any damaged areas repaired, have Tuff Stuff and new antifouling paint applied by The Boat Guys.

What kind of clams make the best chowder?

If you're a Rhode Islander, you know the answer to this. If you're some landlubber from parts unknown who has stumbled across this site seeking useful information on a plethora of subject matters relating to boats, boat drinks, or Boat Guy Blogs, then there is only one answer for you. Mercenaria Mercenaria... the vaunted and beloved Quahog. I myself have a secret undisclosed location to procure the finest specimens of this species for my own particular culinary machinations and therefore will only discuss this topic in very generic terms. You'd have a better chance of finding Dick Cheney in his bunker somewhere than getting myself or the legendary Hogfather and the small brotherhood of minions who know this spot to divulge the coordinates. You would have to pry my sawed-off hog rake from my cold, dead hands (or however the hell that line by Heston goes). In any case, here is some information about this amiable yet elusive and potentially violent if provoked indigenous molluskan bivalve that I have lifted from the web.

Definition:

venus mercenaria

Quahog \Qua"hog\, Quahaug \Qua"haug\, n. [Abbrev. fr. Narragansett Indian poqua[^u]hock.] (Zo["o]l.) An American market clam (Venus mercenaria). It is sold in large quantities, and is highly valued as food. Called also round clam, and hard clam.

Note: The name is also applied to other allied species, as Venus Mortoni of the Gulf of Mexico.

Click this link to find out more fascinating information about Quahogs.