"New" boat painted in house paint - how to proceed?

Reptile Smile

Reptile Smile

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Hi all,

I've just acquired a cheap boat. It's great - really pleased with it. It's an Achilles 24 that I got cheap enough to make it worthwhile spending some money on it. She's heavily weeded, and a bit tatty from having been painted in house paint, which now needs either tarting up or removing.

Now - I know more than one person who says bang per buck on cheap boats, house paint can't be beaten. I also know some hate it. I presume removing the house paint can only be achieved with a metric shed-load of sanding? But I guess I probably need to do that regardless of how I proceed from here. So - how should I best prepare the boat for painting given its previous history, and what kind of paint would folk suggest for the topsides?

For beneath the waterline, I've had good success with the cheap n' cheerful https://premiermarinepaints.co.uk/buy/premier-cruising-plus-soft-antifouling-yacht-boat-paint/20 . I'm not in a particularly heavily fouled area, and actually quite rated this stuff..?
 
I am not sure whether you are referring to the hull or the topsides.

I painted a snapdragon 23 topsides using masonry paint a few years back. It lasted three seasons and then I sold the boat. She was an old gal and I could not make it worse, and in fact it was pretty good with no peeling or cracking at all after three years. I attribute this to the work put into prepping the surface. I used a cordless drill and quite a stiff wire brush attachment to remove the old paint and debris. Brutal I know, but as already stated the boat was a mouldy neglected mess. I then cleaned it thoroughly with sugar soap.

Painting the hull might be trickier.
I guess it all depends on the current condition and the finish you are aiming for.
Is the hull badly faded/stained? I have seen some great posts on here about t cutting and polishing.

Overall though I think it is well worth considering. Gel paint costs a fortune.
If the boat was bought cheap there will no doubt be other items you will need to purchase e.g. rigging, sails, engine.

The Achilles is a very pretty boat. Best of luck with it!

S
 
Reptile Smile said:
I presume removing the house paint can only be achieved with a metric shed-load of sanding?
Click to expand...

I have just finished stage one of removing multiple layers of paint from my wee boat's bottom (same designer as the Achilles 24!) using RemoveAll paintstripper. They recommend 620 for use on GRP but I found it utterly useless - the paint just sneered at it. Now I am on 220, which used to be recommended for GRP but is now recommended for brickwork and steel, and it's performing pretty well. It still struggles with the antifouling, probably because it's so thick, but the stuff below comes off very easily.
 
stu9000 said:
Interesting link.
I would also like to get peoples view on this paint.
Click to expand...
I have a 17ft cruiser that admittedly is in dry dock for the majority of the year. She had a bad case of osmosis when we had it, so apoxy coated the hull. This was on for 17 years without any issues whatsoever. It was starting to look a little dull so five years ago we repainted the hull in heavy duty coach painting enamel from my local car paint shop. It was not much more cost wise than house paint. Five years later it still has a great shine and no peeling
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Comer...135?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3f36c9a84f
This is what we used
 
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stu9000 said:
Interesting link.
I would also like to get peoples view on this paint.
Click to expand...

I rate their Antifouling - the semi hard type. It goes really well being semi thrixotropic so few drips and after 20months continuous immersion apart from a few barnacles, there was just a moderate slime. It will be interesting to see how well Seaforce 30 compares.
I've used Toplac on an old grp yacht years ago and was very impressed with the shine (just 1 coat of primer and 1 of Toplac)
 
It's a very long time since i painted a boat myself: done it several times, more than once in Dulux's best (in the days before they took out all the good stuff in the name of eco-friendliness) and it worked and lasted well. Then years later on a different boat used first International two-pack, horrible stuff, sanded back again eventually and redid in Awlgrip, which was great, but expensive.

The best home-painted boat I've seen recently was done in Tekaloid vehicle coach paint, fabulous finish.

All this assumes you actually have some skill in painting. The biggest factor in getting a good finish is the person holding the brush. There are a few professional painters doing boats that use brushes, and you absolutely cannot tell it was not sprayed. I'm not as good as that, but better than many.
 
I'm in the process of painting my topsides (hull) with Premier paints boat paint. The paint seems very good high gloss and plenty of pigment. Very good value too. Don't underestimate the time and care you need to spend on preparation!
 
I would just sand the paint down and paint the hull with a 2 pack epoxy (matt) and finish off with a coat of 2 pack acrylic top coat (gloss)
 
I would suggest that OP do the minimum and get right into sailing the new boat. OK so it needs antifouling paint unless he is willing to risk relaunching with the old stuff on which may have some a/f left in it. As for the topsides deck etc. If the "house" paint is really bad as in flaking off or scratched then just touch it up with more of the same. It would be a huge job to remove the old paint and just not worth the effort. I presume you do not wish to enter Concourse de Elegance competition. Mostly in my experience boat topside paint gets damaged rather than fail as a paint so the cheaper paint will be easier to touch up to enable you to keep the hull at a decent standard (not briliant) long term. Just enjoy the boat there will be a lot more to worry about than house paint. good luck olewill
 
I would suggest that OP do the minimum and get right into sailing the new boat. OK so it needs antifouling paint unless he is willing to risk relaunching with the old stuff on which may have some a/f left in it. As for the topsides deck etc. If the "house" paint is really bad as in flaking off or scratched then just touch it up with more of the same. It would be a huge job to remove the old paint and just not worth the effort. I presume you do not wish to enter Concourse de Elegance competition. Mostly in my experience boat topside paint gets damaged rather than fail as a paint so the cheaper paint will be easier to touch up to enable you to keep the hull at a decent standard (not briliant) long term. Just enjoy the boat there will be a lot more to worry about than house paint. good luck olewill
 
William_H said:
I would suggest that OP do the minimum and get right into sailing the new boat. OK so it needs antifouling paint unless he is willing to risk relaunching with the old stuff on which may have some a/f left in it. As for the topsides deck etc. If the "house" paint is really bad as in flaking off or scratched then just touch it up with more of the same. It would be a huge job to remove the old paint and just not worth the effort. I presume you do not wish to enter Concourse de Elegance competition. Mostly in my experience boat topside paint gets damaged rather than fail as a paint so the cheaper paint will be easier to touch up to enable you to keep the hull at a decent standard (not briliant) long term. Just enjoy the boat there will be a lot more to worry about than house paint. good luck olewill
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Essentially, like so many of your posts, Will, this fits my thinking exactly. The boat hasn't been out of the water yet - I'm still bringing her home, and as part of that, have sailed her nearly 100 miles already. It's this that has kindled my fondness for her - she was great in quite a serious blow a couple of weekends ago, and though the trip back on the canals is proving somewhat heavy on her condition in itself, it's partly that it's nice to plan for the future, but also that I need to decide what I'm doing about some name labels on her bows that prompted me to think about what I want to do about the paint situation. Whatever the solution will be, it will be cheap. I'm just keen to strike the best balance I can on the good/fast/cheap triangle I can, with the emphasis on cheap... :-)
 
Reptile Smile said:
Whatever the solution will be, it will be cheap. I'm just keen to strike the best balance I can on the good/fast/cheap triangle I can, with the emphasis on cheap... :-)
Click to expand...

Bravo ... I really wish PBO had gone this route with the Hantu Biru re-build, rather than the thousands they spent on it... would have been far more representative I think for most sailors on a budget..
 
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