Gelshield

[yachtorion]

An area of the epoxy lifted off the skeg on my boat when it was lifted and pressure washed last week. The surveyor had noted the epoxy was thin in that area when he surveyed her, and the rest of the epoxy seems good.

I'm planning to scrape and wet sand the remaining A/F and epoxy back to gelcoat around the area until I reach sound and well attached epoxy, then apply 5 coats of gelshield 200 to patch before re-antifouling (I use cruiser uno).

I've got both paints and good quality dust masks etc.

I've never used epoxy paint before... Anyone got any helpful advice or gotchas to watch for please?

 

[boatmike]

Gelshield is particularly easy to apply using a roller (not a brush) It comes in 2 colours so that you can apply them alternately to check your coverage. Lightly abrade the gel coat first and you should have no trouble but leave for at least 2 weeks (preferably longer) before antifouling afterwards.

 

[ParaHandy]

Oh dear! I did the whole boat this year with Gelshield and the accepted way of applying Cruiser UNO, i thought, is almost immediately after the last coat of Gelshield has gone tacky. If you allow the epoxy to dry, you will have to abrade it to get the antifoul to adhere.

 

[vyv_cox]

When I did my hull with Gelshield 200 the instructions were very clear that a coat of hard antifouling should be applied to the final coat of epoxy within a relatively short time, I forget the actual figure, but while the epoxy was slightly tacky and well before it had cured.

 

[winsbury]

I did our hull last year with Hempel Gelprotect SFE200 with a roller, this is very similar to the Gelshield product so this advice should transfer - very easy to do but don't mix more than you can use, I found I wasted quite a bit on the first two coats before getting the quantity right, 1L was about right for a single coat on our 23ft bilge. Use a power mixer which is faster and more thorough than doing it by hand so helps keep your working time to a maximum. The Hempel product has a generous recoat time so no problem doing it over a couple of days and no need to sand down between coats. Use a good quality new roller for each coat and preferably a new tray too as that avoids any potential to get lumpy bits that are partially set in the tray. I found the trays were very easy to clean after it had set just by flexing the plastic the remaining gelprotect came out in a single sheet leaving a spotless tray. The result on the bottom of the boat was a very satisfying finish and after leaving it a couple of days to cure properly was a very hard surface ready to prepare for coppercoating.