naked bottom

[Andrew Westgate]

Hi!

I have just finished stripping the bottom of my Ariel (A387 -Arthur). Man what a job!!!!!! Had at least 10+ layers of paint. After/during stripping I noticed many areas where the gel coat was pitted and cracked. Figured I'd barrier coat but having read the wisdom here about barrier coat was wondering what if anything I should do to the bottom to prepare it for its new bottom paint. Fill fair? Paint over? High build epoxy?

Any suggestions would be a big help.

Thanks -Andrew[/url]

[bhartley]

Assuming by barrier coat you mean something like Interlux 2000, don't do it. All you need to do to talk yourself out of it (aside from reading everything on here when you search for barrier coat), is to call Interlux and ask questions.

The moisture level they expect is not attainable in any reasonable amount of time. Pyxis was out of the water for 10 months and still was a little high on their scale (can't remember the exact number tonight). I used a real moisture meter. The boat never had blisters and probably never will. I filled and faired, rolled on two coats of epoxy and painted. She's happy. I'm happy.

I was, thankfully, able to return all of the supplies for the barrier coating to Defender for a full refund.

Just my .02.

Bly

[Tim]

The Interlux rep that visited me last year reiterated that the relative moisture levels of the laminate need to be under 6% for barrier coat application.

That's extremely low, by the way--low enough that without external influence (i.e. auxiliary heating or other drying), most laminates that have been in the water in the recent past will never attain that low a moisture level within a typical time frame.

[Andrew Westgate]

Thanks-folks!

Arthur will be on the hard until September. NC summers are hot but humid as you can imagine so maybe she won't dry out much.

Yes that is what I was referring to. Interlux 2000 was what I was looking at. OK so when you say " I rolled a a few layers of epoxy" what exactly do you mean. Can you advise me as to kind you used and technique. I have been using West System for most general repairs.

This site is has been very useful to me, a newbie sailboat repairer. Thanks!!

Andrew

[bhartley]

Andrew,

I used West System with their fairing fillers and Interlux WaterTite (which I loved) to tidy up the gouges and unpleasantries on Pyxis' bottom. The fairing fillers need to be overcoated with unthickened epoxy before painting. Here's a link to the instructions (scroll down to the bottom for the fairing section http://www.westsystem.com/webpages/userinfo/manual/

Whenever I had a question I couldn't find a definitive answer to, I just called the folks at West Systems. They were enormously helpful (as was Tim) during my major restoration.

I'm getting ready to start on Ariel's bottom which looks like a walk in the park after Pyxis. We'll see once the scraping gets going.

Bly

[Andrew Westgate]

We just finished the stripping job today!! Now the boat is free of hull paint. Took countless hours of sanding. For once I'm very glad I don't own a bigger boat!

[David]

Hi!

I have just finished stripping the bottom of my Ariel (A387 -Arthur). Man what a job!!!!!! Had at least 10+ layers of paint. After/during stripping I noticed many areas where the gel coat was pitted and cracked. Figured I'd barrier coat but having read the wisdom here about barrier coat was wondering what if anything I should do to the bottom to prepare it for its new bottom paint. Fill fair? Paint over? High build epoxy?

Any suggestions would be a big help.

Thanks -Andrew[/url]

Andrew,

I did the same to the bottom of my Bristol last summer and decided to use West's barrier coat system. It worked very wetll. I added three coats of Primocon primer over it, more to protect the expoxy from UV than as a primer. Still on the hard so I haven't gotten to antifouling paint yet.

You can see a write up here: http://bristol29.com/Projects/bottom/bottom.htm

David