How much and what kind of bottom paint...

[MedSailor]

I'm about to enter the yard (mumbles prayer) and one thing I'd like to do is get a quick paint job. Lots of the yards (actually all but 2) don't let you paint your own boat anymore! They cite environmental issues, but I doubt that....

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone would like to hazard a guess at how much paint it will take to paint my full keeled 30,000lb displacement Formosa 41? I have little experience to go on as my last boat was lapstrake and was a pain to paint and used it up like crazy. I also used a sloughing paint on the last boat which was goopy and thick, thus not going very far.

Also I would love suggestions for paint choices. The boat will remain in puget sound and canada for the next 4 years, after that anywhere. There is a hard (modified epoxy?) on there not which is not a sloughing paint. I have no experience with the hard paints for fiberglass boats and paint is EXPEN$$$IVE now so choice is critical, and I value your input.

Medsailor

PS If anyone has a wooden boat in puget sound I had GREAT experience with Interlux bottomkote. Lasted 4 years with no growth and even on the third and 4th years people would ask if I had painted that season.

[hellosailor]

Med, every can of bottom paint will have coverage estimates on the back, based on how you apply it (brush, roller, spray) and how well the material covers. I'd say pick your poison, then see what the coverage numbers are for it.

State and federal regulators have really come down in some areas, requiring boatyards to literally bulldoze away their topsoil and install barrier systems if there are toxins present. So understandably, many yards don't want to let Joe Public do anything that could lead to an EPA action and a shutdown of the yard. Others require you to tarp it and curtain it and remove all debris, and working without retraints is getting rare.

[sailingdog]

The EPA has been really cracking down as HS points out. Many marinas have been forced to install water reclamation areas for doing pressure spraying, and sanding anti-fouling paints is probably high on the list for enforcement as well.