Paint vs gelcoat.

[kartracer]

A friend has a 53 Viking Princess, the slip next door caught fire a scared one side of the boat. Viking quote 100 grand to redo and paint the boat. Must be a lot of work to get one right.

 

[diver dave]

Horiz. gelcoat in tropics/FL will oxidize and typically look far worse than great paint at the 10 to 20 year mark. The bow of my last boat had lots of Awlgrip, in white. No wax needed even at the 20 year mark. Full gloss. I would encourage you to look at the used FL boat scene, keeping an eye on sunburn gelcoat. Much different world below 30 deg Lat.
The downside of paint is with damage/scratches that may show a far different color primer coat. That may look very bad. Even rough sunburned gel still looks kind of OK from a distance, hiding even fairly deep scratches, keeping the color. Gloss is all gone, though.

PS; if you have the energy to do a wax job on gel every 6 mos on a large boat, more power to you.

 

[tozz]

I had heard Hatt painted their new boats many years ago. Part of my bias towards paint vs gelcoat. Other thoughts?

BTW - I am a beer drinker. I'll take Dave's beer.

Our Nordlund is painted and I prefer it to caring for gelcoat. It's been easy for the yard to match and blend when we have had some fiberglass work done in the past couple of years. Our boat washer likes painted boats better as well. Been using Awlgrip products (Awlwash/Awlcare etc.) and working out pretty good so far.

We have also started to experiment with wrapping on certain sections. All our trim around windows and the upper deck facade is all wrapped now. Cheaper than paint, easy to reapply or patch if it gets dinged up.

Overall experience is it's cheaper to care for paint. YMMV.

-tozz

 

[Larry M]

2011/2012 We painted the hull and all the metal on Hobo plus re-gelcoated the house and fly bridge. We had just spent over a year in Panama and Central America where it rained a lot. Other boaters that had painted had issues with the 2 part polyurethane paints bubbling and lifting on the decks where water pooled or didn’t drain and/or under deck carpet or coolers/deck boxes. That’s one of the reasons opted for the gelcoat plus I knew the guys that would be working on it.

Fast forward 7 years. I wish we had painted the entire boat. The gelcoat was more expensive to do since it is more labor intensive. It’s harder to keep up and imho harder to repair. We also have a few areas where the application was thin or the crew removed to much while finishing. As far as the standing water, yes that can be an issue but then again we haven’t had the 75-100” of rain we saw while we were in Central America. The gelcoat still looks good but it's hard to beat modern paints.

 

[Ken E.]

Our Nordlund is painted and I prefer it to caring for gelcoat. It's been easy for the yard to match and blend when we have had some fiberglass work done in the past couple of years. Our boat washer likes painted boats better as well. Been using Awlgrip products (Awlwash/Awlcare etc.) and working out pretty good so far.

We have also started to experiment with wrapping on certain sections. All our trim around windows and the upper deck facade is all wrapped now. Cheaper than paint, easy to reapply or patch if it gets dinged up.

Overall experience is it's cheaper to care for paint. YMMV.

-tozz

Every Nordlund I've seen has had great paint. Do you know the boat 'Huntress' in the Seattle area, which may be a sistership to yours? We have seen them up north several times. I think the owner lives in Yakima.

 

[tozz]

Every Nordlund I've seen has had great paint. Do you know the boat 'Huntress' in the Seattle area, which may be a sistership to yours? We have seen them up north several times. I think the owner lives in Yakima.

Huntress is two docks over here at Elliott Bay Marina. We pass her every time we leave and enter the east entrance to the marina! She's a bit newer, 2001, and a little different style. Beautiful boat!

The sister boat that was built at the same time as ours and has similar lines is the 85' named Estiva. She's over in Lake Union.

https://www.yachtcharterfleet.com/luxury-charter-yacht-26609/estiva.htm

Our original owner was from Yakima as well. Conundrum was originally named "Shuregood".

 

[jeffnick]

PAINT - because I'd rather spend my time and money out on the water than making my boat shiny.

 

[Rthomas]

Gel or Paint

Having lived in Florida I can attest that gel coat needs a lot of maintenance there and in the tropics. At least two full wax jobs per year and preferably three. A neighbor painted his boat and it still looked great after 12 years with no maintenance beyond standard cleaning. If you add up the cost of all those wax jobs paint is much less expensive over it's lifetime. If you were cruising the northwest it might be a different choice.

 

[Vadim]

Yep, I'll be painting with AlexSeal this spring.

Are you going to do it yourself? Spraying or rolling and tipping?
I am planning to paint my boat too. Last year i took care of all dings and cracks now she is ready for a topcoat of Alexseal. Pro's quoted me $20K for hall only. that is pretty expensive for me. I know it is not easy job, but my neighbor did it and it looks great.
Share your experience.
Thank you.

 

[Tony sundeck 40]

Is this a one part or two part polyurethane

 

[Eddie W]

+1 for paint. My experience has been with spraying and roll and tip. Results were fantastic, alexseal is in my opinion better if you roll and tip, as with any paint work it's always about prep. Take your time, and if you roll and tip, I would not do it alone.

 

[Steve DAntonio]

2011/2012 We painted the hull and all the metal on Hobo plus re-gelcoated the house and fly bridge. We had just spent over a year in Panama and Central America where it rained a lot. Other boaters that had painted had issues with the 2 part polyurethane paints bubbling and lifting on the decks where water pooled or didn’t drain and/or under deck carpet or coolers/deck boxes. That’s one of the reasons opted for the gelcoat plus I knew the guys that would be working on it.

Fast forward 7 years. I wish we had painted the entire boat. The gelcoat was more expensive to do since it is more labor intensive. It’s harder to keep up and imho harder to repair. We also have a few areas where the application was thin or the crew removed to much while finishing. As far as the standing water, yes that can be an issue but then again we haven’t had the 75-100” of rain we saw while we were in Central America. The gelcoat still looks good but it's hard to beat modern paints.

Deck gelcoat can and often does also suffer from osmotic blistering if exposed to a continuously wet surface, I've seen this happen a number of times with door mats placed on gelcoat, as well as shrink wrap that traps water.

Neither gelcoat nor 2 part poly paints should be exposed to water long-term. Epoxy, on the other hand, is impervious to this phenomenon.

(In Shanghai, homeward bound)

 

[oldsalt]

Go with AlexSeal. I've done two boats in New England climate with awl grip and after 8 years no fade still shiny. Both were done in White which is an easy color to do. The spray was also done outside by an outside vendor on both jobs. I just am way too cheap to pay the boat yard's ridiculous prices. Of course, each vessel required a detailed estimate to avoid making the yard's principals angry, but I went with an outside painter that charged by the linear foot. My guess from memory was a savings of 60 percent over the cost at each yard my boat's were on the hard. My concern with gel coat would be application and finished result. Good Luck