Razz
Member I
Rascal is a 23 year old Ericson 28+ which I have owned since day 1. I have raced and cruised her.
I am now sailing the brackish waters of the tidal Potomac and Chesapeake and I've experienced the usual little barnacles and slime growing on the bottom. The gelcoat has developed some blisters too, although few in number and small in size.
Five years ago, I decided to put the best bottom on that I could. After doing the research for repairing the imperfections in the gelcoat I settled on the following approach. You can tell the old Laser racer still lives in me!
Power wash and brush scrub the bottom and rinse thoroughly.
Pop all the blisters and gouge them out, you won't be needing them.
Rough sand where the blisters were with 60 - 80 grit sandpaper...be careful to not get too carried away. You just want to rough it up.
Mix up some micro-balloon compound and get a nice flexible plastic putty knife and putty up the blister sites. Let it cure.
Sand down the patched blister sites using 80 - 100 grit. Don't get carried away..just smooth it out.
Here's the fun part. Wet sand the bottom using 220 - 400 grit wet and dry paper. I removed a wee bit of gelcoat to get a super smooth bottom. When I was done, the bottom looked as smooth as a cueball.
To seal the hull, I used VC-TAR a 2 part epoxy paint from Interlux. It seals everything nicely. An airless sprayer will apply a very nice coat and on my 28 footer, it was a snap. Be sure to mask your boat! I used painters masking tape to define the waterline then cheap plastic drop clothes to protect the hull. The airless sprayer was a $75 Wagner. You don't need a big heavy one. At first you won't believe that an airless can spray VC-TAR because it is so thick, but it works GREAT. Don't do this job any other way.
The final paint application was done using the same airless sprayer and VC-17 antifouling paint. This stuff is great. It only took me about 20 minutes to put 2+ coats on. My boat took almost 4 quarts to put a nice covering on.
I recently repainted the bottom. To do so, after a powerwashing, I had to touch up some of the VC-TAR which took 30 minutes and a sponge brush then I masked the boat and sprayed on the VC-17.
The benefit to this work is that the boat is FAST in light air and the bottom lasts about 2 years between paintings. It is very slick and while others are bobbing up and down in light air, I am sailing.
I hope this helps someone out there. I can attach pictures if anyone is interested.
Nick
s.v. "Rascal"
I am now sailing the brackish waters of the tidal Potomac and Chesapeake and I've experienced the usual little barnacles and slime growing on the bottom. The gelcoat has developed some blisters too, although few in number and small in size.
Five years ago, I decided to put the best bottom on that I could. After doing the research for repairing the imperfections in the gelcoat I settled on the following approach. You can tell the old Laser racer still lives in me!
Power wash and brush scrub the bottom and rinse thoroughly.
Pop all the blisters and gouge them out, you won't be needing them.
Rough sand where the blisters were with 60 - 80 grit sandpaper...be careful to not get too carried away. You just want to rough it up.
Mix up some micro-balloon compound and get a nice flexible plastic putty knife and putty up the blister sites. Let it cure.
Sand down the patched blister sites using 80 - 100 grit. Don't get carried away..just smooth it out.
Here's the fun part. Wet sand the bottom using 220 - 400 grit wet and dry paper. I removed a wee bit of gelcoat to get a super smooth bottom. When I was done, the bottom looked as smooth as a cueball.
To seal the hull, I used VC-TAR a 2 part epoxy paint from Interlux. It seals everything nicely. An airless sprayer will apply a very nice coat and on my 28 footer, it was a snap. Be sure to mask your boat! I used painters masking tape to define the waterline then cheap plastic drop clothes to protect the hull. The airless sprayer was a $75 Wagner. You don't need a big heavy one. At first you won't believe that an airless can spray VC-TAR because it is so thick, but it works GREAT. Don't do this job any other way.
The final paint application was done using the same airless sprayer and VC-17 antifouling paint. This stuff is great. It only took me about 20 minutes to put 2+ coats on. My boat took almost 4 quarts to put a nice covering on.
I recently repainted the bottom. To do so, after a powerwashing, I had to touch up some of the VC-TAR which took 30 minutes and a sponge brush then I masked the boat and sprayed on the VC-17.
The benefit to this work is that the boat is FAST in light air and the bottom lasts about 2 years between paintings. It is very slick and while others are bobbing up and down in light air, I am sailing.
I hope this helps someone out there. I can attach pictures if anyone is interested.
Nick
s.v. "Rascal"
