Updated on June 18th, 2021
Less than two weeks before we were due to sell our house, we decided to try and finish the biggest project that stood between us and launching the boat: our bottom paint job. At the end of April, the boatyard opened back up for the first time in two months! Hooray! But we weren’t allowed to launch (or live on) our boat yet. Boo!
Against basically everything we stand for and pride ourselves on, we called the boatyard and asked if they could quote the bottom paint job for us. We were getting desperate, after all, we were about to be homeless. I laughed, and then cried when they came back with the amount. It was equal to four months of cruising. We were going the DIY approach.
We had pie in the sky dreams of finishing all the sanding and fiberglassing before we had to pack up all our stuff and move to Maine. In three days (about 40ish people hours) we managed to scrape and sand all the old VC 17 bottom paint off. And then we had to leave for Maine. It took Andy another 3 days to fiberglass and paint. All of it was miserable. And we captured it all on video!
We’ve put together a list of tips for bottom paint, so you’re experience doesn’t have to be quite as bad as ours.
Pick Your Paint Based on Research Not Hearsay
The forums are full of anecdotes: this paint is horrible and this paint is the best, blah, blah, blah. We are big fans of science on this boat and always look for tests that tell you their criteria and methods. Practical sailors has a great article about the best bottom paints that has details about most of the major brands.
After taking a lot of advice with a grain of salt, and reading several articles we chose the TotalBoat Spartan ablative. It was in our price range, has good reviews and testing had shown it as effective.
Do Not Try to Do It All in One Day
This one was advice we didn’t take but should have. We are two desk chair sitting, computer typing, “knowledge” workers who are not used to the kind of manual labor required for a bottom paint project. We broke the boat in halves for the sanding and scraping and honestly we would have been much better off breaking it into quarters. Everything hurt. Pace yourself, and break up sitting vs standing vs over head work.
If You Are Not the First Owner, Be Prepared to Find “Projects”
Bottom paint can hide a variety of sins. In our case it hid a large grounding repair that was just straight filler. We also found what we thought was a crack in our rudder. This added a couple days to the project that we hadn’t accounted for. Give yourself some wiggle room when you budget time.
You Cannot Cover Up Too Much
I wore a tyvek suit hood with a hat on the first day, and it still took 3 shampoos for the water to run clear. Here is a list of our must haves for sanding bottom paint:
- Tyvek Suits–Ladies you may want to size up because these are built for men and don’t have a lot of room for the junk in your trunk. Trust me I blew out the butt in two pairs.
- Respirator–a full face respirator would be ideal. We’ve never tried them but after this project, we would seriously consider them for the next time. Otherwise, a normal respirator would work.
- Saftey Google—Not glasses, googles. Protect your eyes.
- Hair Covering–You could use a scarf, a bandana, or I personally love these multipurpose headbands. I use them all the time!
- Disposable nitrile gloves—layer two or three pairs, that way when one breaks (and it will) you can remove and keep going without getting your hands wrecked.
When You Inevitably Get Covered in Dust Anyway…
It’s going to happen. No matter how well you use tip #2, you are still going to have the dust on you. Experience tells us that it’s going to be your hands that get it the worst, and unless you like walking around looking like you haven’t washed your hands for the last ten years, we recommend the following.
- Gojo Hand Cleaner–This stuff is more than just soap. There is pumice built-in and it will really help. We always have some of this around, and for whatever reason, Andy prefers the cherry to the orange, but they work the same!
- Nail Brush
Find Something To Listen To!
Hours of sanding and painting goes by much faster if you have something to keep your mind off the task at hand. We found that upbeat music and audiobooks were the way to go.
Andy listened to this Ska Essentials playlist on Spotify, while I listened to The Henna Artist and The Only Women in the Room on Audible. If you try audible using this link you get two free audiobooks to listen to during your project!
Work In Vertical Sections
This is key for both sanding and painting. It will keep you changing positions which is easier on your back and arms, and also help you keep track of where you’ve been and haven’t been with paint.
Buy the Plastic Sheets Slightly Longer than Your Boat
Our shop vac was already on its last leg before this project so we decided to go the tenting route instead which is allowed in our state. You may want to check local regulations and boat yard restrictions on this before starting or there could be a hefty fine.
It may sound like common sense to buy sheets longer than your boat but the first day of sanding I had bought 25′ heavy plastic sheets and then made up the difference with the flimsier 10′ ones. This was a BAD idea.
We spent the whole day fighting the plastic. Buy the slightly heavier and longer and you will get more use out of it. And waste less plastic.
Try a Few Different Grit Sand Papers
You would think that 60 grit would work better for taking off a lot of layers than 80 grit but that wasn’t the case for us. We’d recommend trying a few different grits and then buying a big package (or two) of what ever seems to be taking off the most bottom paint.
Swap Your Sanding Disks Regularly
When your googles are covered in dust and it starts to get hard to tell how well your sanding disk is still working until it rips. No bueno. We eventually figured out about how many sq ft we could do per disk and started swapping sooner. Things went much faster.
If You’re Laughing You Can’t be Crying
At this point in your bottom paint job you are probably close to tears. Find something to laugh about! Do a silly dance, make stupid jokes, listen to a comedy podcast, anything that keeps you from crying!
Make Sure to Plan Your Painting
Timing is everything once you start painting. Time your coats so that you do not exceed the maximum dry time between coats. We found that writing up a schedule and setting some alarms on our phones to be really helpful to keep us on track. But monitor how things are drying because, as with any paint or epoxy, cure times are heavily based on ambient temperature.
Work During the Coolest Parts of the Day
Again, common sense but sometimes you get so caught up in the project that you forget about taking care of yourself. It was 94 degrees the day Andy painted, and because he had made a schedule based on when the yard could move to get under our trailer pads, he ended up painting two coats in the worst of the heat. If you have to work mid day, take breaks, hydrate, and try to stay in the shade as much as possible.
The Fingerprint Test
This was some of the best advice we got on this whole project. The maintenance manager at our boat yard imparted the following wisdom “ignore the dry time instructions on the barrier coat. Start painting when you can stick your thumb in it, and it leaves a print but no paint on your hand.” This saved us several hours.
Interlux Solvent Wash 202 is Worth Its Weight in Gold
It is super pricey but worth it. Do not skimp on the solvent, if you run out, buy more. This is not the place to be cheap! Any imperfection could be a big headache down the road!
Make Sure You Have All Your Paint Supplies Before Starting
Running to the hardware or marine store mid-project is always a pain, but trust us when we say you do not want to do it at any point during this very messy project. Also, you don’t really want to leave your paint unattended between coats, especially if it’s hot. Our barrier coat cured about an hour faster than the can said it would. Have plenty of the following on hand before you start painting:
- Paint Tray Liners
- Solvent Safe Rollers
- Shop Rags
- Gloves
- Brushes
Use Solvent Safe Rollers
The barrier coat is epoxy-based, so if you don’t use solvent-safe rollers for the barrier coat and paint, the roller will start to fall apart. Then you have little flecks of crud in your paint! After all that sanding!!!
We hope these tips will make a project that is easily the least fun you can have with a boat just a little bit more bearable.
Take a Few Minutes to Admire Your Work
You’ll only get to enjoy how pretty your new bottom paint looks for a few minutes before you have to launch your boat! Take pictures, crack a beer, ooooh and aaaaah at how awesome you are.
Thanks for the share