Our prior boat was a 42' fiberglass sail boat. I'm convinced that maintaining a steel boat isn't a lot different than maintaining a f/g boat. With steel, you just have to keep paint on her, which is a lot less work than repairing, waxing & polishing f/g. And, unlike fiberglass repairs, almost anybody can paint! The previous owner recommended going around the exterior once a month and taking care of any rust by simply grinding it out with a dremel, etc., putting a dab of rust converter (like Corroseal) on it then painting. Maybe an hour or two of work?? For marina dings, etc., our rub rail is made from 2" half pipe welded to the hull. If we rub against pilings hard enough to scrape paint off, a few swipes with a brush and all is well again. Bolting on a rubber or wooden rub rail would eliminate even that, but I've never really felt the need. For the bottom we have always used Ameron ABC-3 bottom paint. It is rated as a 5 year commercial ship paint and is a lot less expensive and more effective than your typical West Marine offerings. We typically haul and paint every 4 years. Each time we haul I feel like we could have gone at least another year! At haul-out, zincs are checked and if needed, new ones are welded on. Most yards have someone who can do simple welding so it's no big deal. Early on I thought about having bolts welded to the hull so I could change zincs underwater by just removing a nut/lock washer, but our zincs seem to last a very long time so I've never gotten around to that. Last month we just completed a top to bottom paint job where the overhead, deck house sides, topsides and bottom were aggressively sanded, a handful of rust spots ground to bare steel and prepped with inorganic zinc chromate primer, the entire boat painted with 2-part Bar-Rust 235 epoxy and then top coated with Amercoat 450 HSG urethane paint especially formulated for steel. Paint on a steel boat is typically rolled on so it's fast and easy. In 18 years, it's the first time we've done more than just partial painting where needed, but we decided it was time to do the entire boat so the next owner would have a "new" exterior and a new bottom! Hope this helps.
