Should I shy away from a dirty bottom?

[oGaryo]

My current boat and the one before have never been antifouled but the boats I am looking at are predominently without trailer and therefore tend to have been painted at some point in their life... I fully intend to continue to pop the boat on a trailer within a store and launch facility, so should I be looking out for a clean bum or will any old dirty bott do so long as the hull is sound?

 

[MapisM]

I'd rather look for a never antifouled boat.
Not because there's anything wrong in the a/f as such, aside from the fact that you'll never be able to bring the hull back to the original shiny gelcoat.
But it's harder to understand if the hull is 100% sound.

 

[AndieMac]

If you are a fussy owner the clean bum is is going to be more appealing in general appearance and the drives always look sweet.

The down side will be if you want to leave it in the water for say more than a week or two in warmish sea, or even murky estuarine water. It will clean up, but tends to be a bit of work.

 

[gjgm]

My current boat and the one before have never been antifouled but the boats I am looking at are predominently without trailer and therefore tend to have been painted at some point in their life... I fully intend to continue to pop the boat on a trailer within a store and launch facility, so should I be looking out for a clean bum or will any old dirty bott do so long as the hull is sound?

Dont worry about it, though if the previous a/f is a right mess, its a bit of a job to get it off. A bit of flaking a/f is ok, and dont worry if it isnt super smooth.. but like painting wood, you need a reasonable surface to repaint.
One coat of a hard a/f such as Blakes, or trilux will also add some small protection to the scrapes of launching anyway, and as said elsewhere, if you start staying o/night or longer with a bigger boat, you risk growth starting fairly quickly.
So I think I would go for an a/f boat, bcz if you want to a/f a clean hull, you need to abrade the whole hull below the waterline to get the a/f to adhere.
No.. I think its time you joined the A/f club !!

 

[sarabande]

one of the reasons for using antifouling is that if you choose the ablative type, it needs a good blast of speed every so often to remove the slime, so you can honestly tell SWMBO that hacking through a F6 in the Solent is just to keep your bottom clean.

She may possibly not choose to believe you every time....

There are some A/Fs which can be taken out of the water for a length of time, and some which don't like to dry out.

 

[duncan]

some sound advice already

just remember that whilst you may well wish to use the boat 'racked and stacked' others might want a boat with AF already in place.

so whilst poor condition AF will be a negotiating point for either party, reasonably AF won't (whether you want in or not!)