The answer to Marine Growth
 

When the boat is in a slip in a marina, the answer is to have the bottom cleaned periodically by divers. Turns out that there are plenty available to clean the boat bottoms in the marina; they are competing for the business. They do it well and inexpensively! I saw one in the parking lot today and he said he would do my little (compared to the others) Wellcraft V20 for $25/month. Deal!

And just before I trailer it at the end of the Summer, I will have him clean it super well. That will save the bunks on my newly rebuilt trailer.

Larry

The answer to marine growth is a properly applied bottom paint. Ablative bottom paint will last you multiple seasons.

Now you tell me! ha. I didn't get an opportunity to repaint the bottom of my boat before launching it in the Harbor. Then my trailer fell apart and it was stuck there for weeks.

I will have the divers clean it regularly and then really well before I pull it out this Fall.

I still haven't figured out how to paint a trailered boat bottom. How do we lift it for access to the places under the bunks and rollers?

Larry

you need to paint the bottom of any fiberglass boat if you leave it in the water. Gel coat is more porous than fiberglass, it absorbs water when it left in it for long times, the water gets between the gel and the fiberglass and causes hull blisters. When you paint the bottom of a boat, you start with a primer/barrier coat to prevent blisters. Ablative paint helps the process of retarding marine growth and making it easier to clean off. If you use the boat regularly enough, it will keep itself clean. To answer your question about painting a boat on a trailer, there are several ways around that, all easily done

Larry, given your age, I don't know your physical strength or general overall health. But most of us just slide the boat off the trailer onto concrete blocks. Paint it and then back the trailer back under the bow and winch it back onto the trailer.

By the way, you can buy plastic sliders for the tops of your bunks that will make launching and retrieving your boat much easier. Available on eBay in many sizes and materials. This is just one link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/48-x-3-NEW-B...089d56&vxp=mtr

I remember that Reelapeelin painted his boat a few years back and he posted pictures of the process. Do a search and I'm sure you'll find it.

OR for a wee little boat like our V's you can simply jack up the keel and let the boat lean to one side on the trailer... plastic drop cloth over the trailer and use a roller on a pole to paint the high side... then flop it over and paint the other side.. Next let it down and paint the keel and last slide it back a few inches and paint where it sits on the keel rollers.

Love it! Thanks! The company that rebuilt my trailer and installed new bunks could only suggest "garbage bags" as covers to save my new bunks from marine growth. I will buy enough of this stuff to cover my bunks!

I will definitely cover my bunks with that plastic or teflon stuff, then load the boat and haul it somewhere for bottom cleaning and painting. If at the end of the season, I will do that job where the trailer is now (see the photos).

I read everyone's suggestions for painting a boat on a trailer and I like this best:

"blockin' it up off the trailer is the only way to get to the rest...I let the tongue all the way down, then blocked up the center of the stern...then raised the tongue, which lifts the stern after it bottoms out on the blocks...w/the tongue up, block up the bow, drop the tongue again and VOILA!...she's flyin'!!...stiff leg the sides...jack and block again as the axles go out from under and never had to tie it off at all...the trailer jack does the work"

Larry

Glad to be of help.

Just remember, even though these are only 20 foot boats they weigh over a ton and they have no conscious. They will crush you in a second. No matter how you wind up painting the bottom, BE CAREFUL and always make sure your boat is 110% secure before getting under it to paint. We want to be talking to you, not about you. :head:

Yeah! Lets not create the sad story of the old fart in San Diego who read that he should paint the bottom of his boat and then got crushed by it!"

Thanks! I am very very aware that jacks collapse, cars roll, etc resulting in accidents in which people get injured or killed under cars or boats or whatever. I will endeavor to avoid that. I didn't reach age 73 by being stupid! ha

Hence my attraction to the method in which the trailer jack is used to raise the boat a few inches off the trailer, enough to paint under the bunks and rollers, but not enough to create a potential disaster. If it falls, it falls back onto the trailer. It might crush the paint roller-- but not my arm!

Thanks again!

Larry

If your'e real lucky find someone goin to the Bahamas and have em pick you up a gallon of Tributylene-10......We had a boat painted with that stuff and nothin would even grow on the side of the dock you parked it on!!!