Bottom Paint
 

Who on the lake does a good job at a resonable price for bottom paint?
Thank You

... Winni boat bottom paint ?
 

Do Winni boats get bottom painted? I don't think they do. It's not an issue at all like it is in salt water or brackish water. Lake Winnipesaukee has been the drinking water source for the city of Laconia for over 100 years. In fact, the city processing water plant is next door to a boat gasoline fuel-up. Maybe having the drinking water so close to a gasoline station for all these years is why Laconia has been in love with motorcycles for 80 plus years.
Supposedly, the Winni water is slightly acidic which makes aluminum boats and aluminum alloy outboard motors last & last & last.
At boat take-out time in the fall, there's hundreds of fiberglass boats which get their hulls scrubbed and washed to remove slime growth. It's very unusual to see any fiberglass hulls that have been bottom painted. Almost all are the original gel-coat that is usually white without any anti-barnicle, copper based bottom paint jobs that are common in salt water.
Anyway, besides all this, both Channel Marine & Silver Sands Marine both have first rate paint shops with the real-deal marine paints like Awl Grip & Pettit, and have lots of painting experience.

Before I went new boat shopping last year, I would have agreed with FLL. But now I've seen that many of the larger boats come from the factory with bottom paint. A lot of the 30'+ foot cruisers had the paint. I looked at a 32' Searay that was required to have bottom paint, if you ordered the inboards.
I bought a different boat without the paint. As FLL says you really don't need it on Winni. Just have the slime pressure washed in the fall.

In addition to Channel Marine & Silver Sands Marine, I'm sure Irwin's and Fay's could paint your boat. Check out the lake links on this site. Anyone selling big cruisers will be able to do bottom paint.

Bottom paint
 

I'm treading on shakey grounds with this issue, but considering the usual chemical make-up of bottom paint (if we are talking about the anti-fouling type) it may, in fact, be illegal to use a sloughing metalic based paint in this fresh water lake. Before I settle the question in my own mind I think I'd ask at the "official" level. As I said, I'm on shakey grounds with this issue.

Anti-fouling bottom paint runs approx. 89.00 to 198.00 per gallon. The boat will need to be stripped with other expensive products to prepare the gel coat for adhearsion and painted with a couple of coats. Then add the labor. There are anti-fouling paints without copper. :liplick: This is not needed or recommended for fresh water boats. There are some very good fiberglass stain removers on the market. Interlux has an excellant one, if that is why you are considering bottom coating.

As far as bottom paint goes on Winni, its a common practice, not necessarily to prohibit growth but to just provide a better look. With that said, if your going to do it, you need to do it right. Just dewaxing and slapping on paint is not the correct way to do this. First the bottom must be dewaxed, with something like a fiberglass solvent wash, a 202 maybe. Then it needs to be scuffed up, usually you would use a coarse sand paper just to scuff the surface. Now we are ready to apply our first layer, an epoxy bottom coat. Why do you need this? Because, gelcoat on the bottom alone is not enough to seal the hull, gelcoat by nature is a porous substance. If water gets behind the gelcoat, between the fiberglass and expands you now have an osmotic blister. The barrier cote will provide an epoxy layer over the gelcoat to seal it. Once this is done you can go ahead and throw on a bottom paint. My recommendation is an ablative paint, which will wear like a bar of soap as you run the boat. What this accomplishes is no need to sand next year or at least a lot less sanding when you reapply paint. With the regular hard paints, once the copper is out of it, they are no longer effective, but the paint is still there. In turn you now have to sand that as the paint builds up over the years which is not a fun job, hus I recommend the ablative and just touch up where needed every year. Also just a tip, when you tape off the waterline, once the tape is on there, get a dry rag and rub the tape all the way around, this is called burnishing the tape and will give you a nice clean line all the way around.


Good Luck!