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I've had my carvel planked boat out of the water for about 18 months and am about to relaunch her. Her hull has dried out a bit and we have filled the seams with soft putty. My boatbuilder has suggested I do not try to make the paint job the best she's ever had, since she will take up when she's back in water and squeeze the putty out of the seams, so need a touch up next year. I'm unsure what to do about antifoul. In the long term I think she needs hard stuff (Micron 66?) - I reckon she's not fast enough for the ablative (is that likely to be right? She averages 3-4kts) - but I wonder whether it's worth putting the most expensive option on now if a) she's going to have to come out again for a while next year (I think the hard stuff doesn't like being out of the water) and b) her planks will move on relaunch. Suggestions?
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Re: Antifouling carvel after longish haul out
Actually an ablative is just the thing for the slower wooden boat. Especially if you give her a scrub every three months or so. The ablative will accept a bit of squeeze-out with less cracking and flaking away from the seams than hard paints. In my experience, hard bottom paint is not happy going on over ablative so if you go that way, you're committed unless you take the paint off completely. The good thing is that ablative is made to be taken off. In normal use you don't get the build-up of an extra ton of paint layers that happens with hard paints. Most ablatives don't last as long and really require annual renewal - which is not a bad thing. Also most ablatives get a boost in effectivness if you add, as I do, about 1/2# ceyanne pepper per gallon. Really.
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