painting my dinghy

[Guest]

Hi,

I bought a second hand wayfarer dinghy at the beginning of the year and have had great fun using it all summer, I'm now starting to think about painting it this winter. The previous owner had the boat on the water most of the time and the boat has had antifouling paint applied below the water line. I would like to reapply antifouling as I will be keeping the boat on a mooring next year. The hull above the waterline could also do with a paint as the gel coat is faded and scratched (1972 mk2).

How should I tackle the job? Should I sand down the hull removing as much of the anti fouling as possible? Can I use an orbital sander for this then finish off with paper? I was then going to fill in some of the deeper scratches on the gel coat and rub these down with wet and dry. There are a few deep scratches below the water line, should I fill these in using gel coat or marine filler? Should I then paint the whole of the hull with undercoat before applying antifouling paint below the water line and ordinary paint above? What sort of paint should I use above the water line? Will I get a smooth finish above the water line if I use brushes? or will it never be as smooth as the original gel coat? I'm not too bothered about looks although I don't want it to look awful, I am more concerned about getting a good protective finish and increasing the boats life for another few years. Sorry about so many questions but I am new to boat owning, if there are any good books on painting hulls that anyone could recommend I'd be grateful. I'm sure there must be a few other people painting there boats this winter, if so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

regards

Mat

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[StephenSails]

Hi Mat,

I would really avoid using an electric sander for two reasons really - 1 the dust is very toxic and unpleasant -2 The sand paper will almost certainly clog.

Some members of this forum have had sucess using an electric scraper, I normally use a sharp hand scraper and a bit of elbow grease followed by wet and dry. Does the antifoul really need to be stripped? You can normally paint over it if it is not flaking or to rough and again wet and dry to smooth it first is a good plan, if you do need start from bare grp you will have to key the grp and then prime with at least 3 good coats of antifoul primer.

I would start off by measuring where the water line is around the boat so that you have an accurate record of where it is, I would then do your antifoul preparation whether that is the complete removal or just flatening off the old stuff, then do your preparation of your topsides and again you will have to key the surface. Once all the preparations are complete anti foul then gloss. You should use roller to apply the gloss and a good brush to lay off the gloss paint for final finishing.

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[Evadne]

Matt,
Having tried to remove all the antifouling from my 29-footer last winter, I can confirm that whoever described antifouling as a weak and friable substance with little mechanical strength has never tried to do the same. It may be illuminating to look at 6-10 month old posts on the subject of antifouling, even if your problem is on a smaller scale.
If it were me, I'd scrape her back with a 2-handed scraper to remove loose or flaking antifoul, then stick on a couple of coats of self-polishing stuff like Micron or Tiger. Don't sand, it's bad for your health, noisy and takes longer than scraping. If you can, haul her out and pressure wash the bottom every 2-3 months next year.

Fill any scratches with gelcoat replacement filler, especially those that go down to the grp, although most other fillers will give an indistinguishably good result (again, do a search on the subject if you're keen as there's usually a lot of winter postings).

The tip about noting the waterline at the end of the season is a good one. Probably best on a calm day.

You haven't mentioned it, but I wouldn't go for a boot-topping line unless you want one for cosmetic reasons. Similarly painting the rudder, unless it's non-lifting and permanently shipped.

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[squidge]

How bad is the gelcoat ? have you tried some fine wet or dry ( used wet) on a small area? You may find that a lot of the faded gelcoat is stained and a good going over with wet/dry will bring it back.The small scratches produced by sanding can then be polished out using a cutting compound (G3/4) and a machine polisher(local hire shop for a few quid a weekend).Worth a try before you invest in expensive paint.Re Antifoul as the post above,Don't sand !and if you scrape buy a good scraper (£12 -£15)from a chandler/diy store, it will make like easy.
Good luck
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[Evadne]

As Squidge suggests, rejuvenating the gelcoat should give a longer-lasting finish than painting it. If the gelcoat is really irretrievable, consider painting with something like Toplac. It gives a good 5+ year finish and is a lot easier to apply than 2-part. And it's cheaper, easier to patch, etc.

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[Mudplugger]

Agree with a lot of what has been said...Do Not Dry Sand your anti-fouling unless you have a full breather set on while doing it....Dust close to lethal...If you must remove, go for a two handed 2" Sandvik scraper, Not cheap but worth the extra, I can do my 33' hull below the waterline over a weekend. Not easy, and hard work...Re painting...go for Toplac with the roller and lay off with a large jenny brush, (chunk of shaped foam on a stick) No runs and a finish that looks as if it's been sprayed..Tony W

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