Bottom paint under the blocks? Fighting with the painter.

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Streff

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2019
Messages
127
Location
USA
Vessel Make
Californian 45 MY
Our boat is on the hard for a bottom paint and a few minor things. We had the bottom blasted with glass to take everything off. Really great way to see what we are dealing with. Long story short, they discovered that the bottom gel coat was completely removed bow to stern and the bottom painted with epoxy. Apparently that costs $$$, I have no records as to why it was done.

We had all blisters fixed, fiberglassed and epoxied. I came to check on the boat today to find that areas within 10” of the blocks did not get the first coat of primer. I know that’s not good work and had a few terse words with the painter.

However, I felt stupid not knowing about how the tip V areas covered by the blocks get primed & painted. Not to mention the 6 side support blocks. The painter mentioned reblocking which makes sense after all layers are done, reblock and start again.

Is that how you all have managed the obstructed areas when it comes to bottom paint?

Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

Streff
 
You do all the exposed areas and then move the blocking and do those areas. It is a PITA but that is what has to be done.
 
For plain bottom paint job, the bare patches are usually done while the boat is in the slings waiting to be launched. If more extensive work is done, reblocking is needed. The work is often fixed price so make sure reblocking is part of the work.

Peter
 
If you are doing a barrier coat and bottom paint it may take days to do the blocking touch ups. If you are doing a barrier coat make sure that the manufacturers specific requirements are followed. A lot of yards will say 2 coats of barrier coat is adequate but the manufacturer says 5 or 6 is what is needed. Follow the manufacturers recommendations or else why do it?
 
Thank you all for your insights and comments. I will for sure I insists on reblocking. Right now, we are planning on 4-5 coats of interlux 2000E primer and 2 coats of CSR paint. The manufacturer gives a range of 1-5 primer coats but without a gel coat, I am doing 5 coats.

Thanks again for the input.
 
Sounds good. Always follow the recommendations.
 
Word of advice. If you are going to reblock it, put in a jack in the new position before removing the current position jack.
If the yard had followed this, I'd still be driving my 46ft Nordhavn.
I suggest your desire be brought to the attention of the 'yard apes' and management. The dude who killed my N46 thought he could do it without extra jacks.
 
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Most marinas will give you a few minutes while your boat is in the slings to finish up the job. Most bottom paints dry almost instantly. If you are using an oil base paint the water will not really effect it.

pete
 
Word of advice. If you are going to reblock it, put in a jack in the new position before removing the current position jack.
If the yard had followed this, I'd still be driving my 46ft Nordhavn.
I suggest your desire be brought to the attention of the 'yard apes' and management. The dude who killed my N46 thought he could do it without extra jacks.

Ouch, what is that guy doing for a living now. :facepalm:
 
Ouch, what is that guy doing for a living now. :facepalm:

He's still employed, doing the same job.
The marina management tried pretty much everything to avoid paying the insurance claim. The one I liked was, "He is not our employee." That fell flat when pointing out, the same guy runs the travel lift.
Mine was not the first boat dropped nor the last.
 
I'd still be driving my 46ft Nordhavn.
I suggest your desire be brought to the attention of the 'yard apes' and management. The dude who killed my N46 thought he could do it without extra jacks.

Is your 46 the one that fell over on the hard and pushed the fin thru the hull?
That boat is now called Havn, and is for sale up in Maine.
 
Is your 46 the one that fell over on the hard and pushed the fin thru the hull?
That boat is now called Havn, and is for sale up in Maine.

Yes, that is the one. I understand the owners removed 2 fuel tanks. Now has 500gal of fuel. Removed the 20kw gen from the engine room. As I recall, the N46 is a 12kw boat. There was also an 8kw gen in the aft laz.
 
Thanks so much for all the great advice. My bottom paint guys did the first 2 of primer with our help. My wife & I did the 3rd coat. The paint guys will help us with coat 4 and the first antifouling paint. No one seems to want to follow the manufacturer recommendations, always quoting experts to me. I will start the final antifouling coat around 4am by painting the areas surrounding the support pads and bottom V. And possibly areas outside the lift straps. Let that dry for 5 hrs, then reblock.. start the primer sequence on the previously blocked areas & continue to paint the rest of the boat simultaneously. I know interlux says to let CSC dry for 16hrs but it is going to be closer to 12 hrs before going in the water. If I don’t get out, I will be stuck in the boatyard for another.. just difficult weather starting this coming Friday.

Thanks again

Streff
 
When I had the 45' jefferson in the yard for bottom work , they would paint bottom then come with travelift ,put in slings, reblock to new areas ,then set back on jacks and keel blocks. Then as it hung in sling near launch basin, painter would touchup areas that needed it ,then wait 1/2 hour hanging ,then launch. Reblock was part of bottom paint job quote
 
Don't leave any non-antifouled spots on the bottom, they enlarge rapidly. There are several ways around this but to difficult to describe here. You may have to pay extra to get the right work done, assuming your guys even know how to do this, or hire a different crew.
 
They don’t want to follow the manufacturers recommendations because it is more work and may take more time. But it is your boat and so you should get what you want. I want to follow the manufacturers recommendations since they know waaay more than any yard guy. They actually do research and development on their products, I can guarantee you the yard doesn’t do that.
 
Thank you all for the wonderful advice. Based on what this thread has indicated, we stayed 2 extra days after the reblock and we did our own painting following the manufacturer’s directions. We used shopping paper bags between the pads and hull to avoid pulling off the paint and they worked great.

Finally got out of the boatyard today. What a relief. As a side note, I had the props taken off & serviced. Once serviced and installed, I noticed that they were on opposite sides. I would have had to go in reverse to go forward.

It’s all done now and we went cruising straight out of the boatyard.

Thanks so much for all the great input.

Streff
 
Glad it worked out for you. You can’t go wrong following the manufacturer’s directions
 
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