To paint or not to paint?

[reelapeelin]

Originally Posted by RidgeRunner

X2 Leave it alone.. It is like putting seat covers on a pick-up truck. Who are you saving it for? Besides, the fish don't care.. I heed my own advice, my skiff has bare glass showing in many places.
That means it gets used...

Vic's right...let er be...even if it's still your 20 years from now, it'll be worth more w/no bottom paint on it...

[Night_Sailor]

My boat is a bit beat looking, but I still think about painting it. It will happen at some point because gelcoat matching is difficult, I prefer two part paint.

Paint is easier to touch up, or even do a full repaint. I'm 5/6 done sanding my 46' sloop for a repaint. The first time my brother and I put in 12 man hours for two months fairing and painting it. It had many star cracks in the gelcoat from poor layup. This time it only needs about 8 -10 hours more work because the hull is so fair.

When it comes to small boats like this, why not, there is so little to do! I bet you could do in 20-25 hours. The hard part is finding a clean place to paint it.


I have mixed feelings on this though because it is so easy to wet sand gelcoat with 600 grit or 1200 and make it look pretty good. I might prefer to have all gelcoat even if some of it looked a bit off color. I hate working with gelcoat though because it seems to be all rework. With paint you make forward progress.