[MHml] Bottom paint for fresh and salt

[Larry Forgy]

I really loved the VC Offshore (Baltoplate) when I was racing my 27 foot 
monohull.  It may be the best racing bottom paint available, but it is a 
real pain to deal with.  It is a rock hard vinyl paint that does not 
wear off.  Repainting involves long and hard grinding with 60 to 80 
grit, cleaning up with 120 to 180, and really competitive sailors go 
over again with 220.  Then the paint is sprayed on (a must), then finish 
with 320 or 600 grit.

(here's a tip.  to keep from killing your arms and shoulders, support 
the grinder with a long piece of elastic tied to one of your halyards.)

The paint has a lot of copper, but because it is so hard, it is not so 
effective.  We raced one design, and if you hadn't scrubbed the bottom 
in the last month, there was just enough slime that you would see your 
competitor slowly moving past.

When I got the Macgregor 36, I switched to Pettit's Vivid Antifouling 
for a number of reasons.  With perhaps three times the hull surface, I 
just couldn't deal with the VC Offshore.  I would be sanding every 
spring for a week!  The Vivid is still a hard bottom paint, but 
unfortunately and thankfully softer than the Offshore.  It also has an 
anit-slime biocide in it that I found to be pretty effective.

More importantly, I could get it in white.  If your are racing, you 
still need to scrub with either paint.  The Offshore only comes in dark 
colors, and underwater it was impossible to see where the slime or algae 
might be, or whether you had already scrubbed that spot or not.  The 
white paint makes this much easier.  You can tell at a glance how dirty 
the bottom is and where you need to scrub.

And the ease of scrubbing partially makes up for the less hard bottom.  
With the monohull, I had to scrub in deep water, diving down to clean 
the keel in one minute intervals.  With the catamaran, I pull it up in 
shallow water with the daggerboards up and easily scrub the whole bottom 
without getting my head wet.  The result is that I clean the bottom 
before each race, something I didn't do with the keel boat.

Larry Forgy

Sigi Stiemer wrote:
> *Larry Forgy wrote: "*.... Baltoplate Grey."  It is popular with many of the racers here 
> in Annapolis, and I used it several years on my monohull. ..."
>
> What are you using now?
>
> Sigi
>