Bottom Coat- Day 3

The much anticipated day has arrived. Today we applied the bottom coat of anti-fouling paint to Carpe Diem. This project has been the source of great anxiety for my dad. He actually told me that he would lay awake at night horrified that we hadn’t made any headway on the biggest project we had to tackle before our departure. But, the paint is in and we’re ready to rock’n roll. 

As I mentioned in the first post, we decided (after an incredible discovery late one Saturday night during our prep process) to go with Pettit Hydrocoat Eco for our anti-fouling paint needs. It is a water-based, copolymer ablative that also has dual biocides for even more protection from all the junk we want to deter from fixating to the bottom of our boat. It’s also copper free. Big bonus for the environment 🙂

This will be the third boat that I have painted from start (stripped bare to the gel-coat) to finish (barrier coat and anti-fouling applied) in the past two weeks. Kind of a crazy thought! But with all the insane things happening in the boat yard prior to Memorial Day weekend (referred to as “hell week” by the marina employees), low man on the totem pole gets the unwanted tasks. Nevertheless, the experience I gained from stripping, priming, prepping, and painting the first two boats was invaluable. I owe a great deal to the team here at CenterPointe Yacht Service for all the guidance and learning opportunities they presented me with during my short time with them.

Application of the Hydrocoat Eco was a breeze. The stuff went on super smooth, evenly, and dried rather quickly. I’ve applied two different paints from Sea Hawk (Cukote line) on the prior boats that I painted and I have to say that the Hydrocoat was MUCH better to apply. There are no harsh fumes to contend with and clean-up is awesome! Just soap and water to remove any drippings or slips of the roller handle a little higher than intended rather than a harsh solvent or paint thinner. I wore a full Tyvec rabbit suit, head sock, gloves, and full 3M respirator when applying paint to all three boats (quite the sight). This protection was entirely necessary with the Cukote paints. But, with the Hydrocoat line it was probably unnecessary (at least the respirator part). I didn’t end up getting a rush of harsh fumes when I removed my mask like I did with the other paints. It was awesome!

We decided to go with 3 layers of the anti-fouling plus a fourth coat along the water line and any turbulent areas. The first layer was blue which went on a little thinner than the rest at 1 Gallon for the entire 45ft hull. The second layer was red and it went on a little thicker than the first at roughly 1.25 gallons to coat the hull.

The third coat of paint (also blue) went on the thickest at roughly 1.5 gallons to coat the entire hull. According to Pettit’s Quantity Calculator (a neat little tool that allows you to enter all the dimensions of your boat’s hull), we would require 1.6 gallons per coat. It was pretty close to right. We ordered 6 gallons of paint total (4 blue and 2 red). I think that we would have used all 6 gallons if we would have had a higher build epoxy barrier coat in place prior to painting.

The final application looks fantastic. I love that blue color! It really makes the boat pop. Too bad most of it will be below the water line. All that is left to do is paint the cradle pad squares and the very bottom of the keel when it’s dangling in the boat lift. Should be a fun night! We will need to get in three coats of paint in all of those spots over the course of the night. The boat will go into the lift sling at the end of the work day at the marina and we will have to work in 3 hour increments to re-apply all three coats in order for it to be ready to be set in the water the next day. It’ll be a sleepless night. Well, maybe an interrupted sleep type of night. Apply a coat, sleep for a few hours, apply another coat, and so on. It’s all worth it thought to make sure that we’re well protected from all the marine life when we hit the ocean.

Biggest project accomplished. Bring on the 20 small ones 🙂 We only have 6 more days until we cut the dock lines!!