Flexible canvass paint for folding Prout dinghy

[Greenhalgh]

I am restoring my 50 year old 6' Prout built of wood and canvass allowing it originally to fold. Advice please on the make of paint I should use.
I will be leaving the boat erected but the canvass "hull" will still flex.
Hope you can help.

 

[Mirelle]

!

Fifty years ago, my father had one.

My earliest technical sailing mamory dates from forty-nine years ago, when I was four, and concerns the need to paint the Prout to stop it leaking before we went ashore in the Helford River!

Evidently, he did not solve the paint issue. There is a recipe for sailcoat paint in Claud Worth which involves dissolving the transparent kind of pencil eraser in linseed oil, etc, which might help.

The Prouts I had when I started sailing, 35 years ago, were different - Prouts had discovered PVC coated cloth (a fairly bright blue, as I recall). Alas, both were stolen!

They are much safer than they look.

 

[mrswigglestick]

Re: !

I'm just thinking aloud really but my parents' steel boat is painted with chlorinated rubber paint. They swear by it as it's kindof soft and so puts up with being dinged better than conventional paint and is easily overcoated with minimal preparation needed. Don't know if that'd do the trick on canvas... I seem to recall it being hard to find though I thought International made it.

 

[mrswigglestick]

Re: !

Just had another thought- the dressing on the barges' sails round here gives the canvas a nice waxy sort of finish and fills the weave - and is a great colour! Can't say I've tested it for waterproofness though...

 

[DRW]

My barbour keeps my nice and dry in the wettest weather, but I doubt that it would be authentic to wax your canvas in the same way - although it might be quick and cheap.

 

[Greenhalgh]

Re: Paint for my canvass Prout

Thanks for your suggestion but can you explain Claud Worth?
Mervyn :

 

[Mirelle]

Re: Paint for my canvass Prout

Claud Worth - the "Guru" of English cruising yachting from 1911, when his "Yacht Cruising" , the original "yachtsman's Bible", was published, to 1949 (twelve years after he died) when Eric Hiscock's "Cruising under Sail" took over as the "Bible".

Highly useful book if like me you own a pre-War gaff cutter!

I'll look up the "recipes" section in my copy.

What sort of paint has it got on it?

Because you actually sit on the bottom, it's very stable.