FOR BIG NIGE...By all means paint as far up the slot as you can get, as well as the bottom edge of the daggerboard...If light get to it, something will grow...
In the 90's, I had a 40ft. jarrah plank charter ketch. Pulled it out each year, a bit of a clean and a light rub/sand and another coat of antifouling...never a problem...and with timber...there is less of a problem with fibreglass...My present was painted when I got it 2ndhand and all i have done is a clean and another coat...again of white. just to please the missus. With the planker, always found red to be the most effective...tried both black and blue of the same product but the red seems to have a better effect.
If you use the ablative type, any growth on it will wash off with a bit of a speed run...
If you do high speed most of the time, use the hard finish type...the dealer will advise you.
shifting the on the trailer by floating it forward or back can be avoided by jacking it higher on the trailer as many here have advised...depends on how close to the water you are.
And...ps from an old hand...put it on with a brush and scrub it in to get rid of any air bubbles...two coats if you can afford it...dont thin the paint at all...its quite thick. DONT use a roller with thick paint as air bubbles can be trapped leading later to it peeling off...and we wary of spray contractors...unless they can guarantee to use YOUR WHOLE FOUR LITRES. They have been known to THIN the paint to get it through the spray gun nozzle, and then give YOU only ONE covering coat. antifouling should not be thinned...Its not easy, but SCRUB it on with a stiff brush.
When I pulled the boat out this time it had been in the water for over 6 weeks and there was a whole layer of growth over the bottom much of which I hadn't encountered before (10 days in the water previously). Whereas it had taken about an hour and a half to clean the bottom before this time it took a good part of three days! But looking into the slot there doesn't seem to be much there. I've never taken the daggerboard out of the casing so have no idea how tight a fit it is when its at the bottom of its travel and am worried that if I paint it, I might have to get the diving gear on to go under and free it. You're right. it's thick stuff, I'd hate to have to get it off.
Think I'll paint the bottom foot of the board and look again in a couple of months. The water is only a few feet away.
Good description of how to use the trailer to raise and lower the boat. But I am still unclear on the support points, and I don't want to crack any fiberglass.
Where exactly do you support the hull from fore and aft? What methods have folks used?
For waxing I use 2 5X5 posts right at the transome. For height I lowered the nose wheel right down then put a car jack under it, removed the wheel then dropped it down on the driveway with no wheel to get the stern high in the air. Measured the posts to that height then cut them. Cut a slight angle on the tops to match the hull angle then with them about a foot apart attached a brace with long screws to keep them from spreading under the boats weight. I then added another brace along the foot of them perpendicular to the spreader brace to act as feet to prevent fore & aft movement. Works well. For the bow I use a jack stand with a rubber door stop for cushion on the top and place that under the bow. Of course it does not go very high so I put it on a stack of short 2X8's to gain some height. It clears the trailer quite well and provides lots of working room.
I use 8x15 inch blocks 4" thick I jack up the boat & place them on the bunks length wise lower the boat onto them covered in old carpet when finnished then move blocks forwrd to finnish off I'd be leary of putting the boat down on only two 5x5 inch surfaces just my 1 1/2 cents worth I lay on my car creeper & can move around freely under the boat
Highlander, you mention you jack up the boat. How do you do that? Do you mean jack up the trailer, or do you jack up the boat directly? If so where are your jacking points?
When you jack up the hull, make sure there is a solid plank of wood between the hull and the jack...because if the jack slips for any reason it could punch a hole in the hull...not nice and not easy to fix. pugs
I use a small auto floor jack on wheels with a 8x15 bock laying sideways on it, on my mac19 the center of the hull at the rear is flat for approx 8" wide so the boat sits on the block nicely for jacking up I use several of these blocks to attain the height I need , for my 26m I may have to cut the top block out to the shape of the hull then lay some old carpet on I wiil see if I have any old pics around that I may have taken at the time I last done it last yr when I installed my new C/B
was painted when I got it 2ndhand and all i have done is a clean and another coat...again of white. just to please the missus. With the planker, always found red to be the most effective...tried both black and blue of the same product but the red seems to have a better effect.
