freshly painted decks sporting rust spots

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scruff

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I painted my boats decks 3 weeks ago (sandtex exterior masonry paint), and they were looking good after a full days work - 50m of tape place down, mm perfect - straight lines the full works.

However turn up today to find that some lovely thoughtful person has obviously been grinding some ferrous metal in the vicinity (the boat next to mine now has a very smooth keel) and now my entire deck, cockpit, fore deck - the whole shebang - is sprinkled with what looks like paprika powder. And its not a small amount either. I dont think there is a square inch without countless marks. Needless to say this staining was not wanting to shift easily.

Short of stringing the suspect up by his dangelies, any suggestions as to what can be done to rectify the matter?

I am really quite p**sed off right now.
 
I don't how to easily rectify the damage - I'd be more than p'ed off and would lodge a complaint with the boatyard and ensure that they told the offending person that he owed you an apology at least (or a offer of help cleaning it off).
 
I don't know if there is any good way to get rust spots off painted surfaces, but on GRP surfaces I think that the oxalic acid solution used to clean teak decks will do the trick. Try a small area first.
 
I was thinking oxalic acid, but with the paint still being new - could only have been down one perhaps two weeks so prob not fully "hard" and I suspect the stains may have got into the actual paint its self.

hmmm

Will have a wee think about it however any more suggestions more than welcome...
 
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any suggestions as to what can be done to rectify the matter?


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Ideally the cretin on the adjoining boat should sort it out but he's probably the sort that makes a mess of everything he touches, so why not pursue the matter with the boatyard? Duty of care etc. I don't see why a boayard should not be liable for damage caused to customers' property on its premises in the same way any other business is.

Several years ago I made the mistake of laying up my boat a shambolic boatyard on the South Coast, inside a shed. One day an employee of the yard arrived, fully kitted out in protective clothing, and began to dry grind the antifoul off the adjacent boat. He was completely baffled why I should object to having my boat, and me, covered in toxic blue dust. He was still baffled when the yard owner [following my complaint] made him stop grinding and clean my boat up.
 
This does raise the question about what is acceptable in boatyards.

I remember antifouling my boat when my next door neighbour started pressure washing his boat and soaking mine.

I think you have a case against this irresponsible boatowner to have it put right.

Many I know, will say it's a boatyard, what do you expect ?

Not acceptable in my view - there has to be consideration for others.

You would at least help other boatowners in the future.
 
Had this happen to me once in Bristol when they prepared one of the ferry boats for painting. Owner was very apologetic so I did not fume too much! Decided to let the sea do the work. After about 6 months and following some hard thrashes to windward there were only a few specks left. Suggest you don't let it worry you too much and go sailing-after all the yacht has the protection on it!
 
I sympathise with your plight .. First stop boat yard office .. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif .. We had our Beneteau in Neptune Marina on the Orwell the other year .. Lot of building work going on and we got some grinding dust on the decks .. You only see the stuff as it rusts .. Still got some on the decks now ..
 
Oxalic acid is the only thing I can suggest but test a small area first.

While it may be reasonably easy to remove the rust stains the trouble will be that any small metal particles imbedded in the paint surface will continue to rust.

Submit a bill for having it professionally stripped off and repainted, plus the additional storage charges at the yard.
 
Sometimes these things are accidents, rather than a deliberate action. I remember the first time I wielded an angle grinder, I ended up with my car windscreen with lots of embedded grit in it. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Why not have a calm word, show the offender the damage, it may be that in these credit crunch days he is trying to save a few bob doing something himself and did not realise the impact.

Rectification will be difficult, but at least you will know that a reasonable man will not do this again, and will indeed make doubly sure that next time he considers the effect on your boat.

There is a risk with complaining to the boatyard that they get fed up of DIYers and start implementing restrictions on what you can do yourself, (for example painting on a windy day could splatter nearby boats).
 
G'day scruff,

Most liquid stainless steel cleaners will remove rust stains without damage to paintwork,
you might have to do it more than once to remove it all.

Try a small area and leave it a few days before doing any more to ensure the paint is not effected. I know it works on GRP and 2 pot paint and I'm pretty sure I have used on single pot paints but only after testing.

Let the yard know and ask them for the contact details of the suspect.

Hope this helps.

Avagoodweekend......
 
If the paint dried then the rust fell on it , the rust spots may well weather away after several months . It happened to my boat, downwind of a guy who was anglegrinding a yard trailer, I tried to remove the rust, gave up because it was quite persistent, and I decided to use the boat rather than worry.
Eventually it went away, as it weathers faster than the paint....
 
Vic is right - if the bits are embedded they will continue to rust and oxalic acid will only be a temporary solution.
This happened to me a few years ago, with a guy restoring a steel boat near me. It ended up a £700 insurance job to try to polish them all out. To be fair the guy concerned paid my insurance excess but I lost my no-claims bonus.
I was astonished that when PBO did an article about how useful grinders are, they didn't mention this (the yard that restored mine told me it's a recurring problem).
 
Much sympathy scruff. Here in Newhaven we have 3 scrap metal sorters on the riverbank within a few hundred yards of the marina, constantly churning out clouds of dust and rust whilst filling the holds of coasters. Painting decks is a chancy business around here. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
Scruff I am really sorry you have this problem, unfortunately it may be a touch worse than you may think, it all depends how dry your paint was when it was 'sprayed' with grinding dust and how hot the dust was when it hit your boat.
The worst case is when red hot filing hit soft paint, they almost burn their way into the paint - sometime deep enough that the paint softened by the heat actually seals over the particle of dust, this can also happen if your paint is not dry - remember it can take several more days than 'touch dry' for paintto be chemically dry. In either of the above cases the only way to prevent these filings turning into rust in the future is to remove the paint to a point below where there are any of these particles. I have known several boats where this has happened and they have had the problem of rust spots for years afterwards. So go and play hell with the yard and the guy who ruined your boat. How would you have acted if he had splashed your boat with paint stripper? Or damaged in some other way?
He has damaged your property and he should rectify it, because whatever you do it will be expensive.
 
I agree with those who have advised you to see the yard and ask for their support in getting the culprit's (or the yard's) insurance to do a proper job and restore your yacht. The analogy of paint stripper is perfect. If the yard don't immediately jump to your defence, you could point out that they no doubt require everyone to have third party cover for situations like this.....
 
I sawed a shackle in half and the foredeck went similarly spotty. Tried the oxalic but no good. Eventually sorted it with a quiet afternoon and stanley knife jiggling the individual spots. But dunno how many spots you got? A few per sq foot is doable, but if it is really speckled...
 
The way I learned about oxalic acid some 30 years ago was that the manager of our shotblast plant was casual to put it mildly about cleaning his filters, with the result that all the exec cars inc the MD's had these rust spots all over. Including the glass.

He and his staff were given the job of washing all the cars with oxalic acid. It removed the rust spots and did wonders for the filter plant cleaning schedule /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Thanks for all your messages and suggestions. The yard is run by the small yacht club which I only joined a couple of months back so am personally a bit wary of kicking up a storm so soon after joining.

As an update, I happened to see the guy who has the lovely smooth keel yesterday however he told me that he took it back to bare metal a couple of years ago and denies doing anything this year.

Think I will subtly speak to everyone during the crane in in two weeks just to let them know what happened - hopefully this will weed out the person responsible - even an apology would be gratefully received.

just feeling rather disillusioned by the whole affair.

Hopefully in the fullness of time the culprit will come clean and admit what happened.

If not I could always introduce a family of mice to his cabin......... but that would be rather nasty wouldn't it.
 
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