Fact or Fiction? Dry dock bottom paint

[Larry&Leisa]

I'd bet it's somewhere between.

My boat is on about 45 days of sitting out. The question arose of the '60 days out, then the bottom needs to be repainted'. I'm sure harsher conditions and different qualities and types of paints make a difference. Its always been a freshwater boat from Oklahoma. As to what type of paint or how long it's been on I don't know. I'm probably going to have it done anyway but I'd like to hear anybody's else thoughts.

I briefly checked the interwebs and CSR without being convinced it's that straight forward. And the reason it's come up is my adjuster denied the bottom job from our lil tornado damage and the repair shop gave the 60 day reason for the line item.

 

[fwebster]

I think the reason the answers to your question vary all over the map is because the amount of time out of the water without negatively impacting the life of your antifouling paint varies from paint maker to paint maker and varies by the type of paint you applied and its individual chemistry. For some paints, air oxidizes the outer surface thus sealing in the antifouling properties rendering the paint useless without a good sanding to expose new paint. On other ablative paints, new paint is exposed as the boat passes thru the water so no sanding is needed.

The thing about an insurance claim or a warranty claim involving bottom paint, the antifouling coating is considered a depreciable item. If you can prove when, with what, and how the bottom was last done, you have a start in making a partial claim. If you can further prove via the documentation for your bottom paint how long the boat can be out of the water or even what the recommended treatment at re-launch is, then you are in a much better position to request a supplemental claim by depreciating the original cost of the paint based on the % of its useful life that has been expended and by whatever the manufactures remedy for leaving the boat out of the water, whether it is a repaint, sanding or nothing.

 

[paulswagelock]

Agreed, depends on manufacturer and type. Many hard coatings have a limit to time out of water. Most ablative paints have no limit.

Rule of thumb- if you wet it down and rub the paint with your hands and the color transfers to your hands, it is most likely ablative and does not have a limit on how long it is out of water.

That said, my marina's default bottom paint job uses a hard paint with a time limit. However, the boats all get dry stored for 6 months for winter and put back in, and the paint still performs fine.

 

[Larry&Leisa]

As I thought. Thank you Frank and Paul.