Protect Your Boat: Everything You Need to Know About Bottom Painting

[@WayneTheBoatGuy]

Here's my OLD video trying out the trailer mounted jacks that can help with painting the bottom of your boat: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGHFZ5J3Zst2nLM

[@CapeAnnImages]

Great video! I've painted just about every type of boat here in Gloucester, Ma from the age of 14 to earn money to buy my 1st boat and that goes back to 1970! I've mostly used ablative paint. Any in water boat should be repainted each season. I've always prepared the hull hand sanding with 80 grit( no power sanding you can easily gouge the hull) Rinse then apply 2 coats to a new hull. I always use a wide brush, never a roller since rollers waste too much paint. It is important to launch within 24 hours or the paint will over dry and the ablative properties will diminish. When hauling out in the Fall it's important to power wash while the hull is still wet, otherwise any algae will become concrete hard and will require more vigorous sanding. Then in the Spring before re launch, sand, rinse and one coat of paint and launch. Best Regards, Jay

[@mikeblack6953]

You absolutely need to bottom paint your boat “if” you plan on leaving it in saltwater (like a seasonal slip or mooring) or any longer than 3-weeks, even then there will be a film. I learned the hard way, put my boat in a seasonal slip, didn’t bottom paint, thinking I’d pull it every 3-4 weeks, swing through a self-car wash. Well, 3-4 weeks turned into 5, when I pulled it, the entire bottom was covered with barnacles, a 1in thick carpet of flesh like gel hanging. About $30 in coins at the self-car wash to get the fleshy part off, the barnacles remain. Took all summer cleaning a section off at a time with muriatic acid to remove the barnacles, took the opportunity to change out my boat trailer rollers for better ones, removing one whole section at a time to remove barnacles from each area. Bottom paint has lots of copper in it, oozes from the painted surface as it sits, its poison to marine growth so nothing organic will attach. So ya, marinas are poison pits.

[@leadreviewer3257]

Good topic boats require allot of care particularly in salt water

[@MoneyPitBoating]

Awesome video Wayne! We were actually thinking about painting our pontoons because we get LOTS of growth from the river. It's gross!

[@WayneTheBoatGuy]

I'm sure you do!

[@BenjaminHeyser]

Check out a product called toon-brite. We use it each fall when we pull our pontoon boat out. It cleans it back to bare aluminum. Just power wash first, spray on toon-brite, let sit for a few minutes per the instructions and rinse off with the power washer. May need to repeat 2 or 3 times on particularly thick grime. No scrubbing is done in the process.

[@barrywarren4221]

I paint my boats every few years, with enamel paint I get at Tractor Supply. My boats are never left in the water, I trailer them both ways. When I get home, I pressure wash the sides and bottom of the boat, plus the lower unit of the motor.

[@kaseyc5078]

How is this relevant?

[@tylerwarren6229]

Got the ablative and hard backwards, once hard oxidizes in the air its toast but ablastive can stay in the air because it can just shluf a new coat. Also dont waste your time sanding unless its chipped just acetone the whole boat and be done

[@chrisinsd4590]

Nice video, but odd there was no mention of the fact that different bodies of water experience different issues entirely. It is not true that all boats that live in a “marina” need to be bottom painted-that is only true for salt water marinas. Your videos often seem to forget that many folks boat in fresh water as many of the issues you contend with are salt issues. In fresh water, sometimes BP is good and sometimes unnecessary. Is the body of water infested with quagga muscles? It is it clear? We keep our boat at our private dock in a freshwater lake for the season. Of the ~two thousand boats on our lake that live in the water I have not seen a single one bottom painted. Lifts are rare. Just wash wax and polish in the fall, it’s not a big deal. We live most of our time by coast and everytime I see a boat coming out of the bay the underside and out drive looks horrible so it’s different strokes for different folks.

[@MechsWorld]

Wayne what if your bowrider does not have a painted bottom, but you want to keep it on the lake? Should we paint the bottom? We had ours out last week and docked (rented) for three days. In just three days we had a cleaning project. Our lake like so many has nn slips and needs 100 more. We do the annual lottery, but no luck, so we rent to get use to the cost of the slip occasionally and two it's much easier it is to drive to the marina and jump on your boat. Having fun so far, a lot of stress in backing down the ramp and winds with a 18.5 ft boat, but we are still hanging in there as first time mid-50s boat people, thanks to you. Enjoy your boating season.

[@WayneTheBoatGuy]

I would look to see if all of the other boats that are in the marina are bottom painted. It's one of those things that once you do it, there's pretty much no undoing it. If you think it will end up just being a few days here and there, some cleaning products can usually remove all the staining (like Bar Keeper's Friend) but it can remove wax and needs to be rinsed off from the trailer so that it doesn't damage the trailer.

[@sstatic6093]

Aluminum boat that u want to take in salt water needs to be bottom painted

[@gillesgomez3091]

Hi Wayne, Be aware that most bottom paints must be done just before putting the boat to the water. Otherwise, they somehow self-destroy within a few days or weeks in the air. This is the reason why bottom paint must be done every year if your boats stays on a trailer during the winter. About the types of bottom paint, one should use hard type for fast motor boats. Abrasive type is for slow boats, like sailboats. Happy boat season 😎

[@WayneTheBoatGuy]

Good to know!

[@alexpb9]

I don't leave my boat in the water and I want to paint the bottom. Any recommendations?

[@Yeetmaster900]

I've got a HDPE boat.. I've been having a hard time trying to choose something that will protect it and make it "slicker" the products I've been looking at are Gator Glide, Super Slick 2000, Coat it.. and a couple others I can't think of at the moment. Is there a chance you could do a video about hdpe boats and possible coatings for them.

[@WayneTheBoatGuy]

Wow that's a tough one. Interlux makes a performance epoxy for bottoms, but I think it dries hard and might not go well with HDPE.

[@robertmartin265]

How do I get that black crap off my boat? I want to go back to white

[@ronthor5621]

Why can’t you use bedliner spray for bottom paint?

[@WayneTheBoatGuy]

I think it doesn't have the same properties to prevent growth and 'play well' in the water. A good bottom paint cleans very easy because some of it actually wears away - so my interpretation is it's not designed to be durable but to intentionally slowly come off.