Paint advice

[AntC]

morning all
my little E-boat is in need of some underwater tlc and am keen to make it a little more racy.
the old antifoul needs to come off but am toying with the idea of not replacing it. the boat is trailer sailed and is never on the whater for more than a week at a time. so was thinking painting it.
a better solution im sure is re gelcoating but i dont think i have the budjet to do it proffesionally and i have herd bad things about diy jobs being very hard to get good. the current antifoul im sure is painted strait onto the glass fibre.
i am thinking that a 2 pack paint such as international perfection may be the way to go below the waterline, keel, rudder and hull.
has anyone had any experence of wether it would stand up to a few years uce.
or is this a stupid idea?

cheers

 

[Avocet]

What's actually wrong with your gelcoat? Once you strip the old antifouling off, you might find that your gelcoat is fine under there. If so, just buff up the gelcoat and you're "good to go"! I don't envy you the task of geting every last bit of antifouling off, but you'll be able to do it eventually. I think the E-boats are lift-keel aren't they? Will you be able to stand it on trestles while you do it?

Anyway, if you're still keen on painting once the antifoul is off, I wouldn't have thought you'd have a problem with the sort of usage you intend. I had a Leisure 17 once that was only ever in the water for a few days at a time, and that was only painted with International's single pack. We never had any problems with the udnerwater paint. I wouldn't bother with 2-pack as it's really messy to apply (forget it in the UK in this weather!) and the udnerwater surface really doesn't warrant that level of gloss!