Do I need a barrier coat?

[paj637]

Bottom Line: I don't think that I would ever have my boat in the (salt) water for more than two months at a time. I want to bottom paint but everyone says barrier coat. I think it is wasted time and materials. Do you think I would have any issues with blistering in salt water moored for two months? I want to just put a good trailerable bottom paint on the hull and be done with it.

[Québec 1]

Go ahead and keep us posted. You can probably get away with it.
Q1

[Matt19020]

You may want to put a Epoxy barrier coat but no antifouling paint....This would be about 6 coats of epoxy paint .....
and pressure wash after you pull boat..slime can accumulate in as little as 4 weeks
Why take the chance of blisters when the Epoxy should eliminate the risk

[NiceAft]

On one hand you can spend the money and wonder if you should have. On the other you can take a chance and not do it. If it turns out you did not need too, then you are ahead. If it turns out you should have, is it then worth the cost, aggravation, and inconvenience of dealing with the blisters:?: Your choice. I hope I have helped.

Ray

[paj637]

No, I get barnacles after a 3 weeks, small easily removed with a pressure washer. Question is "Can blistering occur with a couple of months sitting at a mooring in salt water. I live a mile from where I would moor and I would probably pull the boat on its trailer instead of scraping the hull in the water. I don't think I would ever have the boat hull wet for more than 2 months at a time. I think a barrier coat is unnecessary for my usage profile.

[markh1f]

Phil,

I think it has a lot to do with how long the boat is out of the water and has a chance to dry out. The longer it is out the less likely you will have blisters. If you are just pulling the boat out for a day or two to clean it and then put it back in for another couple of months then that is pretty much like having it in full time and would have a high probability of getting blisters. If on the other hand it is out of the water for a couple of months or more then the odds of blisters is greatly reduced because any moisture accumulated in the fiberglass will dry out. I had blisters on my last boat so I did a lot of reading on the subject.

Good Luck,
Mark

[Sumner]

Ok you want to bottom paint. You are going to have to sand to do that. Sanding is going to probably make the boat more susceptible to blistering. Bottom paint won't stop blistering.

Once you have sanded the bottom for $120 to $150 you can put on a barrier coat and it will just take 2 coats and a few hours of your time. Then put your bottom paint over it in the correct time window.

Now you don't have to fret and worry. Don't put the barrier coat on and you might just be fine, but if you aren't then you have a big nasty dirty job ahead of you since you now don't just have to sand, but you have to remove all of that nasty bottom paint before applying the barrier coat. After that you have to spend more money buying more bottom paint vs. refreshing what you have on the boat.

For me spending $120 and a couple more hours is a no brainer.

Here is what I did....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-39.html

The best of luck regardless of the path you take,

Sum

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[Hamin' X]

You mention keeping the boat in saltwater for no more than two months. Is the rest of the time spent on the trailer? In freshwater? If you keep it in freshwater, you are more likely to blister than in saltwater. I could go into molar concentrations, temperatures and osmotic pressures, but it has been a long time since my last chem labs (40 years, or so), so I'll leave that to others. As others have indicated though, bottom/anti-fouling paint offers no protection from blistering and if you are in warmer saltwater for only two months, you could just do some snorkeling and scrape the bottom every couple of weeks and get by with only barrier coat.

~Rich

[ROAD Soldier]

The warmer the water the worse it is. Here in the Chesapeake when the water temp reaches 80 Degrees this is what you get in one week on old engine ant-fouling paint.

[Rick Westlake]

Better safe than sorry, I say. Once you've gone to the trouble of preparing your boat for bottom paint, the added time and expense of a good barrier coat would not seem to be all that much.

Even though I keep Bossa Nova on a trailer, I have been pondering the notion of painting her below the waterline with CopperCoat - this is a two-part epoxy bottom paint with fine, pure copper powder "encapsulated" in the paint. Being epoxy-based, it would have good barrier-coat characteristics, but that pure copper would provide all the 'biocide' characteristics you'd be likely to need. Compared with "normal," leaching bottom paints, the stuff is expensive as heck, but the manufacturers can show that its anti-fouling properties last 8 to 10 years in the Caribbean.

Does Coppercoat protect against Osmosis?
The inherent waterproofing qualities of the epoxy ensure that a treatment of Coppercoat will help prevent osmosis in GRP craft and offer extra protection against corrosion in steel vessels. However for an even greater degree of protection, additional anti-osmosis epoxy can be applied as an undercoat.

Can Coppercoat be applied on top of epoxy barrier coatings?
Yes. A.M.C. stock and supply a full range of epoxy barrier coatings for a variety of substrates and circumstances. Coppercoat is also compatible with most other epoxy-based products commonly used for osmosis protection and corrosion prevention.

Maybe it would be worth your while. If I were going to put Bossa Nova on a mooring or a slip, I wouldn't be "pondering," I'd have it done.

[NiceAft]

It seems the replys fall into two catagories, those who say yes and those who imply no

Those who imply "no" say things like "probably", and "less likely". Those are gambling statements. Do you remember the line in Dirty Harry, when Harry is pointing the gun? That's what this remindes me of. Of course, when was'nt he pointing a gun

I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

Well? Do you feel lucky?

If the Bard were alive, I'm sure he would even chime in. Maybe this? "To be, or not to be: that is the question..."[hamlet. III/i]

Ray

[Bransher]

I think Interlux should put Clint Eastwood's picture on their cans of barrier coat.

[DaveB]

Ya I feel Lucky, Punk and going to Blast your hull with Epoxy 2000 barrier coat and Just to make sure Ya dead..going to give you a second blasting.
So..How do you feel, water creapers
Dave

It seems the replys fall into two catagories, those who say yes and those who imply no

Those who imply "no" say things like "probably", and "less likely". Those are gambling statements. Do you remember the line in Dirty Harry, when Harry is pointing the gun? That's what this remindes me of. Of course, when was'nt he pointing a gun

I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

Well? Do you feel lucky?

If the Bard were alive, I'm sure he would even chime in. Maybe this? "To be, or not to be: that is the question..."[hamlet. III/i]

Ray

[ROAD Soldier]

If you are going to go everyday during those two months travel at WOT for at least one full hour you probable will not need a barrier coat. That speed will highly activate the anti-fouling paint. I find that if my is only doing 15MPH and not 17MPH it needs one of 3 things in KISS order:
1. Run at WOT for one hour to activate Anti-fouling paint.
2. Seafoam for two tanks of gas.
3. Boat needs to be taken out and powerwashed.

[Gater Dunn]

try this barrier coat
http://www.motorcycleimpacts.com/Anti-Monkey_Butt.html
one type for blue hull and one for white hulls