Shoe String Shipyard 12ft Frugal skiff...Revisited

[jclays]

Well its been a few months since my 12ft skiff has been completed and in the water. Skiff is Aquatec marine plywood 3/8 sides 1/2 inch bottom. No fiberglass. Only CPES in and out and 4 coats of Petit's Ezpoxy on the sides and interior of the hull. The bottom initially got 4 coats of Rustoleum's marine bottom paint. I put her in the water (salt water) for her first outing and left her in for a month. Pulled her out cleaned the bottom (Rustoleum cleaned up really good) and left her on the marina rack for 3 weeks. Put on a fresh coat of bottom paint and back in the water she went for 2 months. Pulled her out once to clean the bottom. She is now back on the rack with no visible bad effects. My only complaint is the Rustoleum bottom paint. It works great as far as keeping the bottom clean however it is too soft and sluffs off too easy. The bottom paint is looking thin and in a few places. Im thinking of sanding the bottom and painting with a harder more durable bottom paint. Any suggestions on a good hard bottom paint? Can I paint over the Rustoleum or do I need to wood her?
Thanks
Jim

[Tom Hunter]

Re: Shoe String Shipyard 12ft Frugal skiff...Revisited

Some bottom paint is designed to sluff off so that it sheds marine organisms. Sounds like yours is in that category. It will keep performing as designed if you paint over it. So it sounds like you need to go down to wood if you want the new paint to stay on.

[Breakaway]

Re: Shoe String Shipyard 12ft Frugal skiff...Revisited

If its a soft sloughing or ablative paint, then you will have to wood the bottom before applying a "hard" coating.

kevin