Yard is pushing me to add a waterline painted dividor ....

My previous boat had a boot topping button be frank it was a real pain when it came to antifouling. It took twice as long, a two day job rather than one, much more masking to do etc. So I got rid of it and was really pleased I did.
 
The bot stripe is not only aesthetic, it is also suppoosed to be an extra layer of paint where the slime and weed grows fastest so resists scrubbing back a bit more, or damaging the gelcoat. It can be the same colour or different depending on your preference.
 
I tried various paints but best results was painting 2 x coats International Toplac which you can scrub without it coming off and lasts very well
A friend of mine kept a tin of TBT clear boot-topping paint that he used over a white strip for many years.
 
Add the stripe and clean it. Oxalic acid solutions work but a product called Grunt is ready mixed as a paste to paint on and leave 20 minutes. It made ours look like new when I did it in the water recently. Just used a brush from the tender and then hosed off.
 
You say the yard is pushing you to have the divider - the question should be - is the yard short of work and are you just another wallet to empty?

Jonathan
An alternative viewpoint, if you take a positive outlook, could be that the yard are giving good advice based on their extensive experience. That should resonante with the users of this forum.
 
The yard owner is a pal of mine and he was talking ... saying that he thought a white boot top line would look nice. It had no real reason - other than cosmetic.

As to work - he is going to be painting the hull / giving coat of hard anti-foul to refresh ... and offered to create the boot top line.

He has plenty of work ... its not money he's after .. he really likes the boat.
 
It looks better with. I opted to do it in vinyl - the idea being that it's easy to get right, and easy to replace when it gets grubby.
Absolutely this. I used 10mm vinyl tape. Cunningly I did mine in yellow so it hides all that murky yellow solent staining.
Wipe clean, easy to patch, no painting. Total win.
 
Top