Recoating Bottom Paint

[IronwoodIsland]

Hi All

We bought a alloy Ironwood 20' footer last year (an excellent hardtop boat) with a Yamaha 115 2 stroke. The boat now likely needs new bottom paint (doing a good job of growing weeds despite weekly use through the winter).

The boat is moored full time in the ocean near Vancouver BC. Apparently it has Interlux bottom paint over a barrier coat. How do folks like the Interlux Trilux II bottom paint that is recommended for Aluminum hulls?

I'm a bit nervous about using the Trilux II Copper Thiocyanate paint on an aluminum hull as we lost an outdrive leg that corroded away on another boat after painting with this paint (over a rather poorly applied barrier coat).

Any comments on how well the Trilux II works on a barrier coated hull and any tricks / tips on bottom painting in the winter - or should I wait till spring?

Cheers, Graham

[Chaps]

I'm actually becoming more partial to E-paint in our northwest waters. No green growth, no barnacles, just slime which comes off fairly easily. I've tried new Trilux on a few boats and can't really come up with a reason to use it again. No issues with metals in the E-paint either.

Welcome to AAB by the way!

[IronwoodIsland]

Hello Chaps

Thanks for the good tip on E-Paint. I haven't seen it in the stores here but looked up their description on their useful website at:

www.epaint.com

Very interesting concept. Who would think that we got enough sunshine in the NW to make hydrogen peroxide appear in the paint film, much less under a boat?

What type of E-paint are you getting ok results with our NW waters? Release coating or Antifouling?

I'm really interested in not putting any more copper on my alloy hull. (suppose the old copper would have to come off by soda blasting or such).

They make a good point about the cumulative environmental effects of years of copper boat paint in marinas. Here where the rain water is pretty acidic we have a copper rich zone on the bottom of the ocean outside sewage plants (acid water dissolves copper from the house pipes).

Graham

ps like the looks of the Guardian

[Chaps]

I've been using their original product, ZO, for a few years. I need to look into some of their newer coatings as well. I have applied it over tight old systems that have been prepped properly so consider that if your existing coatings are not failing badly.

[Ironwoodtuna]

Chaps,

Tell me what and why you like the Epaint over the Trilux?

What were your reasons and how and what did you do to prepare your hull from Trilux to Epaint??? Mty

[Chaps]

Chaps,

Tell me what and why you like the Epaint over the Trilux?

What were your reasons and how and what did you do to prepare your hull from Trilux to Epaint??? Mty

My Edwing came from the builder with Trilux and second season the barnacles went wild on that paint. Blasted that off and started using tin paints (alumacoat & micron) and for several years enjoyed the benefits of the high toxicity tbt. When that stuff was taken off the market I started earnestly looking around for an effective replacement. I paint boat bottoms for other people besides myself and had several requests for a more benign coating that clients could feel better about with respect to harming the aquatic environment.

I found and started applying E-paint on glass boats for those clients and to be honest I didn't expect much since in my simple way of thinking you don't bring a knife to a gun fight. I was quite surprised to find that after 1st and 2nd seasons on my clients boats the paint was performing very well and no adhesion problems were evident. It finally came time to re-do my own boat and even though I had enough tin paint for one final re-coat I decided to give the E-paint a try and I can honestly say that it is as effective at stopping all types of growth as the tin. It does develop a fairly thick slime coat that power washes off fairly easily but everything gets slimed around here so I'm sold on it.

I know the company has a lot of caveats on how the hull should be prepped and restrictions on what it is compatible with as far as prior coatings so its easy to get the impression that an E-paint job has to go to bare metal and epoxy barrier before applying. Based on my experience of putting it on about 6 boats now, some of which I had no idea what the prior paint was, good basic prep seems to suffice. If the old finish is peeling off then you do what you gotta do (strip). If its tight and all grime & chaulkiness is removed I would put E-paint over most anything. The ZO is solvent based (I use xylene to thin) and it bites into prior coatings very well. If they (E-paint) eliminate solvent based paints then every job might be a total do-over so I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

BTW, my cat also was delivered with Trilux and I had the same barnacle outbreak on that boat too.