Topsides paint kiwi style

[pugwash]

A couple of wooden-boat owners I met in Auckland last week told me they paint topsides every year with acrylic enamel paint made for houses. It goes on beautifully, ablates through the year so successive coats don't build up very much, dries in an hour or so, and a bit of dew or dampness only makes the job easier. The very first coat requires an undercoat, then it's only one full coat a season. In fact they don't even take their boats out of the water but do the job from the pontoon. Dinghy marks etc are touched up with a brush from time to time and you can't see the joins. As it's a water-based paint, keeping a brush on board and washing it out is easy. The finish is not as good as regular yacht enamel but you have to look hard to see any difference. One of the owners hadn't taken his hull back to the wood for 20 years and says most old-boat owners he knows use the same stuff, no probs. The paint job on my 30-footer in the UK following a big repair last year, well done by the yard, cost more than £600. Of that I think the cost of paint was about £80. Acrilyc enamel, on the other hand, costs only a few quid a gallon.

Does anybody have any experience of using this type of paint? In terms of sunlight, the NZ conditions are much tougher than ours in UK. What could the drawbacks be, apart from saving hundreds of quid and hours of painstaking work?

 

[Gordonmc]

Would be interested to learn more, so I will be keeping an eye on the thread. It seems daft to me to use top grade paint which will show up any imperfections in the sub-strate with any touch-ups showing up a mile. I am planning a topside paint job as soon as the weather calms down and know that however much time I spend on prep, timber movement will eventually take its toll.
Do you have any manufacturer's details? sources ?

 

[Aja]

Hmmmm Why paint every year? Is it due to sunlight (UV) degradation? Not something we see much of on the Clyde admittedly...

Painted our 32' Robert Clarke seven (yes seven) years ago with 'Toplac' and give it a polish every pre-season.

Still have to antifoul though......

Couple of (750ml) tins of Toplac? Not much.

 

[Guest]

20 years? *20 years?* As the owner of a wooden boat, I'd have to say that I would have a pretty keen interest in what's going on under that paint after one year, never mind 20, on the topsides or anywhere else.

As for doing it while afloat, please tell me that they are at least hauling out from time to time and having a good look at what is going on below the waterline.

I can expect to spend £1,000 on a complete haul-out, check, strip down, re-paint, re-varnish and antifoul done by the yard - but to me it's worth every penny to stop her rotting in the water. And, hey, at least I never worry about osmosis.

I've heard of a beautiful classic wooden yacht sinking on her moorings, too far gone to rescue, because the owners skimped on maintenance - despite spending a fortune installing new brass fittings everywhere the eye could see.

My big question would be are you sure this stuff protects your boat well enough?

;- )) Now what you folks really need is a sander and a nice pot of shiny yacht varnish...
;- ))

 

[ccscott49]

I paint my boat, which was in Holland, UK now in the med once every five to six years, she is splined so I can use two pack paints, but I used to use normal yacht enemel which lasted at least five years, with the occasional polish and clean the paint is not expensive and lasts well, why would you want to burn off, sand and paint every year, even without a splined hull, thats excessive. As is said in other answers, when you take all the paint off, you get chance to inspect the wood underneath and stop small problems becoming big ones! incidently I have never burnt all the paint off my present boat, as I know the timber underneath is fine, there are other ways of checking the timber under the paint and its iroko, so I dont expect too much trouble only 32 years old! I can see the benefits of water based paints, in green issues alone.

 

[chippie]

I havent done it on my boat (yet) but you have to accept that there is a different level of finish from the more common yacht enamel.
When a boat gets to the point of scruffiness that any paint is better than none , it sounds like a reasonable solution.
The boatowners mentioned probably get more time sailing for the dollars spent than the fancy expensive paint job boats do.

 

[SNAPS]

My boat is at that stage. Slightly scruffy, and I give her a lick of house paint now and then.I get lots of sailing timein. lots of others with oh so nice and oh so expensive paint and fittings never move off the moorings year in and year out!!!

JACKTAR

 

[pugwash]

I should have said that these Kiwi sailors also said acrylic paint is good on the deck. I don't have details of brand names but one guy told me he just goes down to the local hardware store and sees what's on offer. There are several brands available in UK; I used one to paint my verandah not long ago.

I can assure you the boats I went aboard were in beautiful nick. No chance at all of sinking at moorings, as Fruitbat implies. As ccscott49 says, there are ways of checking the timber under the paint without burning off. Nor is it a question of a boat getting to such a point of scruffiness that any old paint will do, as Chippie says. These boats would hold their own in any classic rally. The finish is not shiny but mat with a slight sheen, and looks better for it.

It's true the hulls have to be lightly sanded and painted every year, but the job is delightfully easy and the paint can be touched up with so little trouble.

The most striking thing for me is the discovery that there are real alternatives to the costly, difficult-to-apply yacht enamel that we see in the adverts. Why is it that when you say the word "cheap" people immediately think "scruffy?"

 

[Guest]

Form and function

>lots of others with oh so nice and oh so expensive paint and fittings never move off the moorings year in and year out!!!

But, given that you seem to be arguing that the purpose of a yacht is to sail, surely doing the maintenance that allows her to sail as effectively as possible is essential, not something to be scoffed at?

Perhaps you're saying it's a case of 'so far but not too far' - look after your boat, but don't spend time and money to excess?

What's wrong with wanting a boat that performs well and looks lovely too? I take great pleasure in owning a thing of grace and beauty and feel that I would be doing her a disservice not to look after her.

I accept my attitude's probably not typical - hence the fact I have a 50-year-old wooden boat for use under a highly specialised set of conditions, and with adaptations which would make her hard to use outside those conditions.

But just you watch any boat like her, tacking down the river towards you, and tell me that it's not one of the most lovely sights you've ever seen. It's the combination of looks and, crucially, functionality, that makes that so thrilling - doing what they were designed to do, beautifully.

Oh well, off to the Classic Boat forum, to find some soulmates to commune with...

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by The_Fruitbat on Sat Feb 23 20:23:08 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[pugwash]

Nothing wrong at all...

...I agree with everything you say. But surely, if you can achieve that result at one-tenth of the price (as far as paint is concerned) why not talk about it?

The boat I went aboard in Auckland, and which was painted with acrylic enamel, was in fact Ladybird. She was a lovely old ketch owned by the Blake family and led the harbour procession of 700 boats celebrating Peter Blake's life. Her picture was featured in YM the other day. In fact she epitomises everything you say about beauty under sail, despite the fact that she is painted with cheap but effective house paint.

 

[Guest]

Re: Nothing wrong at all...

... which just goes to prove that we've got round to that comfortable point in any thread, or argument, where we're agreeing with each other.

You're perfectly right (just to emphasise the above point) to say that we ought to be talking about cheap ways to achieve what we want - and I apologise for leading the thread off at something of a tangent.

I said I could spend a fortune on boat overhaul - that certainly doesn't mean I want to do it if there are safe and effective ways to do otherwise.

The description you give of Ladybird is lovely, and I wish you the very best of luck with the work you are planning. I hope you'll let us know how you get on.

Best wishes

 

[chippie]

Re ... cheap=scruffy

I wasnt really knocking the use of acrylic paint, just pointing out that there will be a different result from the full professional job,
and maybe inadvertently reflected my feelings toward my own boat which is scruffy as she is due for a repaint this season.
Your post has set me thinking as to whether it would be worthwhile to use it myself. NZ housepaints certainly have to resist a high level of UV which is the major cause of paint degradation.

 

[pugwash]

It all helps to keep costs down

Hope I didn't sound terse towards Fruitbat and Chippie. The acrylic paint I used on my house some time ago was made by Johnstons but I couldn't find anything like it in Homebase, so I have to hunt further.

In fact I won't be repainting my topsides for a few years yet, except for a bit of touching up, but I do play to try acrylic paint on the deck next time around.

On a general point, I'd like to see much wider discussion on the forum about alternatives to expensive marine supplies. Such as the poster who said a few weeks back that he had a cockpit awning made for a quarter of the price by a tent-maker instead of a sailmaker. It was in this spirit that I hoped my suggestion from NZ would be useful. With the costs of sailing soaring, we should be hunting down these sorts of alternatives.

 

[ccscott49]

Re: It all helps to keep costs down

Anything that brings the costs down is ok by me, be careful when you deal with tentmakers, they tend to ask you what it is for and price accordingly, its a bit difficult to hide some of our types of canvas. I know almost got caught like that some time ago, but overheard a couple of guys in the pub, tentmakers!