SailNet Community banner
  • SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

Tips for barrier coating with Interprotect?

6K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  RichH 
#1 ·
So my boat has been out of the water since last October. Upon hauling her last fall, I noticed a band of thousands of little (BB to #2 pencil eraser sized) blisters to about 30'' below the water line. I removed all of the bottom paint, and the gelcoat to fiberglass in the area of the blisters. The bottom is dry (verified with moisture meter) and I would like to barrier coat soon. I have read Interlux's Interprotect instruction manual, but does anyone have any additional tips/advice? Has the interprotect been "kicking off" too quickly on 90 degree days? Would rolling on a coat of low viscosity resin (MAS or similar) help seal the fiberglass, or would this be a wasted step?
 
#3 ·
You don't want to try applying interprotect if the temps are much above 75˚ or so.... it kicks way too quickly to make applying it properly feasible. I wrote a post on applying it a while back, which I'll repost here:

Alternating the colors helps a lot with determining where you've painted, but it is also very useful for helping you coat the areas around the boat stands. For instance:

The first layer is gray, since the gelcoat is white, and you can paint right up to the boat stand pads. Then you paint a layer of white, and leave about a two-inch margin of gray paint around the pads... then paint a layer a gray and leave a four-inch margin around the pads or about two-inches of white and two inches of gray showing...and then finish with a layer of white-with a six-inch margin around the pads-with two inches of gray, two inches of white and two inches of gray.

Then when you move the boat stands, you can fill in the pads and layer the paint accordingly... adding gray to cover the white square left by the pad.. then white to cover the gray square, and so on.

Also, by alternating colors, you can see if someone has sanded through the barrier coat when you're prepping the boat for re-painting. If there's an area that is gray or grayish, they've sanded through at least the outermost layer of barrier coat. If you had all white, you wouldn't be able to tell if they had sanded down through the barrier coat as easily-if you had all gray, you could tell they sanded through the barrier coat...but not if they've sanded into it...

I hope this helps clear things up a bit.
 
#4 ·
Lots of ways to go

West has a material Barrier Coat additive (422) you add to there epoxy and roll on and of course they feel its the best :)

The big item i have seen is they all need to be built up to thickness X (say 20 mils) or they dont work as well
 
#5 · (Edited)
Here's a hint to arrive at a 'smooth' layer of Interprotect. If you ROLL it all on it will have the surface finish equivalent of someone who has a severe skin disease - rough, cratered, uneven - a surface that will create a lot of drag in the water and a surface that will promote uneven bottom paint.

1. Calculate the residual/cured thickness of the barrier - buy that amount plus 15%+. You will need the 'application tech sheet' from Interlux to do this. This will ensure that you will ultimately build up the RECOMMENDED thickness of barrier. Its easy when rolling to develop hills and valleys .... and the valleys may be less than the recommended thickness; leading to premature failure of the coating. Apply less can result in failure of the Interprotect to 'protect'.
2. Roll on the first layer to be sure that all the surface is covered.
3. When the first layer starts to 'kick', take a large polyethylene trowel and with light pressure and with the trowel held at a very shallow angle 'knock down' the tops of the hills, spreading them into the valleys caused by the roller fabric.
4. Roll on additional coats but immediately use a trowel to fill the valleys and 'clear' the now flattened hills. Continue until the surface is FLAT and smooth as a babies ass. (This is how one lays up gel coat on a male plug mold)

Note: the above steps will prevent a lot of needless 'sanding' to remove the surface roughness

5. Allow to 'kick', then immediately begin to apply bottom paint in the same manner ---- first is a roll coat, the following coats are troweled. Called 'hot coating' and will form a better bond between the paint and the barrier. Use a different color on the first application of bottom paint .... later (months) when you see the 'indicator color' coming through in contrast to the subsequently applied different color .... you know that its time to apply more paint - and you dont have to guess about if or not you need to reapply more ablative. Thick layers of accumulated ablative bottom paint ultimately begin to lose adhesion and you get HUGE 'flakes' when the 'previous' layers begin to 'go'. This allow the minimum of (now quite expensive) ablative to be applied to 'do the proper job'.

Advantages: smooth bottom with uniform thickness barrier and uniform thickness bottom paint. Especially if you use an ablative bottom paint you will have more consistent 'ablation', better 'polishing' due to consistent water flow next to the hull, longer life of the bottom paint, less growth and slime, much FASTER BOAT, etc. Caution - this application process has a high learning curve.

Caution: the above barrier application should be a 'continuous' application to allow proper 'chemical bond' between the 'layers'. Typically I lay-up for 2 hours and sleep for 1 hour until 'done' ... sometimes taking more than 24 hours to do a large boat.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top