Fouling and Lightening

[GregF]

As long as your paint is sound underneath, you can lay a new coat on yourself after roughing it up but if you need to blast it you pretty much need a pro.

[badmoonrising]

Yeah but it wasn't primered so the old paint should be blasted off.

[GregF]

10-4 good buddy, I was just referring to him touching it up later.

[badmoonrising]

Yeah the primer outlasts the anti-fouling, I touch up every year and repaint every 3-4.

[GregF]

It makes me like my lift more every day. Best $1000 I ever spent when I think of what 20 years of bottom paint would cost if the labor was free

[badmoonrising]

There's one marina in our area that you can buy the slips, the rest are rentals. Even after buying the slip, there's still a $2200 a year "condo" fee. If I owned by slip, that would be my first purchase. With a rental, if you install a lift it becomes property of the marina, so it's throwing away money. The one I'm in now was sold last year and the new company is already laying off people and bitching about what it will cost to replace everything the previous owner band-aided for years. I can't see me staying there another season the way things are now.

Waterfront around here, especially on the Bohemia is about a million per 1 acre lot so that's out.

[GregF]

They tried that here during the housing boom and the boataminium was $300k, again with a hefty maintenance fee. I think they are bankrupt too.
These days you can get a nice house with a dock and Gulf access for $300k. They used to go for $700k and up.

[badmoonrising]

This guy will learn, hope soon enough to keep him out of bankruptcy. His latest rant is how much dredging costs, right now he's got a lot of sail boaters who get stuck at low tide. My slip sometimes has about 18 inches of water at low tide.

[Ron Burgundy]

Yeah but it wasn't primered so the old paint should be blasted off.

Actually, it did have a layer of primer underneath the waterline at least, but the dude said it was probably only one coat. I also think that whoever painted the pontoons overpainted the antifouling past where the primer ended. I wasn't able to get a photo because my camera wasn't focusing properly close-up, but you could see a gray colored primer where the paint was flaking off under the waterline.

My guess is that the guy stopped the primer at the waterline, and then decided to paint the antifouling up further for a little extra protection(dummy). You can see here where the paint is flaking off and no primer underneath.

[GregF]

There is a blue anti fouling paint I see on a lot of toons, Is that what we see in that picture. It is a baby blue color.

[badmoonrising]

Yeah I can't tell if it's copper that corroded or the paint was blue looking at the pic. If copper, be glad you got it off when you did.

[Ron Burgundy]

Pretty sure it was copper causing the color. The paint is black, but there are blue spots where the reaction is taking place.

[GregF]

Copper really should show up green. I bet you can find some of that blue bottom paint at the marina to compare. You will have your real answer when they get it blasted. Be sure you get over there for a look yourself before they cover it up with paint. You might even find that there was some preexisting damage from before the paint you have. Look for the pits right at the water line. That is usually where the damage happens. It looks like someone shot a thick glass window with a BB gun.

[Ron Burgundy]

The photo isn't a good representation of the actual color. It looks more green in person. I'm sure it's not the baby blue paint. I have seen that around here, and it's different. I wish my camera was working better so I could have taken better close ups.

[GregF]

At this point it really doesn't matter. The only thing that is important is what you end up with when they get it stripped.
If the metal is still solid and they get the primer to stick you should be good to go.