Rustoleum Boat Paint?

[Nicholas Scheuer]

Saw an ad yesterday at the bottom of my MSN front page for Rustoleum bottom paint, so I clicked on it to find out more and it took me to a site showing topside paint, too. The bottom paint was priced at $59/qt, which seems reasonable. I'm interested in Pettit Hydracoat (a hard paint) for the bottom of my Albin-25 because the boat is kept on a trailer and I'm weary of rubbing ablative paint off on my shirts every time I reach under the hull. The ablative was with an East Coast prior owner; I'm usually in fresh water. Any opinions on Rustoleum elbowing into the traditional range of boat paint like Interlux, etc?

[johngsandusky]

I have used the topside paint on my dinghy, and I like it.

[Greg Nolan]

I have used it on a restored wood-canvas canoe, and it was fine.

[Ted Hoppe]

Add just a little fine copper oxide into the rustoleum bottom paint - it should last you years on the trailer and weeks as a solid anti-foul in fresh water. 500 grams is less than 20 dollars and may go a very long way.

[Nicholas Carey]

This is a nice hard freshwater bottom paint: Pettit Old Salem 1959 Hard Racing Copper Bronze. If you get all fancy, you can buff it up to a pretty good gloss (I'm a little dubious about how long that might last, though)

https://pettitpaint.com/products/ant...r-bronze-1959/

[Bob Cleek]

I may stand corrected, but my understanding is that non-ablative antifouling paint cannot be applied over ablative antifouling paint, which, obviously, is designed to slough off. If you want the non-ablative paint to stick, it needs to be applied to a sound base coat, which means the ablative paint must be stripped off before the non-ablative paint is applied. Just sayin'.

[Breakaway]

I'm interested in Pettit Hydracoat (a hard paint) for the bottom of my Albin-25 because the boat is kept on a trailer and I'm weary of rubbing ablative paint off on my shirts every time I reach under the hull.

Hydrocoat is an ablative paint. I have used it myself. https://pettitpaint.com/products/ant...oat/hydrocoat/

Screen Shot 2022-07-13 at 12.19.42 AM.jpg

Kevin

[Todd Bradshaw]

I used Hydrocoat on our trimaran and on a little 15' glass Nordica sailboat and it worked well. It is ablative, so you never have to sand off a layer of dead paint, but it is not prone to rubbing off on you. It will also survive extended periods out of the water on the trailer without losing its ability to work, which is not true for all bottom paints. After previously using an epoxy based bottom paint (never again, as the removal is a horrible job) and a vinyl like VC17 (slick, but at 17% copper was not strong enough for our water) I wouldn't ever use anything but Hydrocoat. It's water-based, so it goes on like latex and at the beginning of the season we would touch it up as needed and put the boat back in the water.

[Nicholas Scheuer]

A Pettit guy at the Chi Boat Show told me it was good on a trailer boat. It's not the ablative part I worry about; it's the all-too-easy rubbing off.

I used Hydrocoat on our trimaran and on a little 15' glass Nordica sailboat and it worked well. It is ablative, so you never have to sand off a layer of dead paint, but it is not prone to rubbing off on you. It will also survive extended periods out of the water on the trailer without losing its ability to work, which is not true for all bottom paints. After previously using an epoxy based bottom paint (never again, as the removal is a horrible job) and a vinyl like VC17 (slick, but at 17% copper was not strong enough for our water) I wouldn't ever use anything but Hydrocoat. It's water-based, so it goes on like latex and at the beginning of the season we would touch it up as needed and put the boat back in the water.

[Todd Bradshaw]

I had it on two different trailered boats and never had that kind of problem. I suppose that if you purposely rub against it you might get a bit of transfer as they do say that it can be polished to some extent, but it is not like you are likely to get it on you in the course of normal boat usage.

red Hydrocoat

nordica3.jpg

[BillP]

Can't comment on the Rustoleum bottom paint or freshwater but you get what you pay for with bottom paints. Does the ablative on your boat rub off easily now? Ablatives normally dry out and don't rub off easily after being out of the water. Drying out also kills their effectiveness when relaunched. The speeds of an Albin 25 don't lend themselves to working well with a hard bottom paint either. Sounds like the hydrocoat might be a good compromise.