Cruising Bottom Paint

[staceyneil]

A question for southern cruisers (we''re in Maine so have no experience with this!) ....what''s the best bottom paint?

We''re prepping our boat for a (up to) 2 year cruise, a good deal of which will be in the Caribbean. Ideally, we''d like to NOT have to haul the boat until we return after 2 years. She''s stripped and about to be barrier-coated. A paint salesman recommended Trinidad SR now, which he said *might* last the whole time, then when we return to Maine and are hauling every year we can go back to using an ablative so we don''t build up too many coats.

Anyone have any other thoughts?

THANKS!!!

Stacey
www.sailnamaste.com

[paulk]

Whatever you do, make sure the current and future paints are compatible, so you don''t have to remove the old before applying new. Practical Sailor reported recently on bottom paint results, including a FL test site, I believe. IMHO, two coats of an ablative in different colors would likely hold up pretty well. You''d be able to tell when it was wearing off and apply more pretty easily if needed. When you got back to Maine you wouldn''t have to worry about compatibilities.