Best Topside paint

[Southern Boater]

I have painted 4 boats in my boating time. We rolled and tipped 3 and sprayed one of them. It is a tremendous amount of work. But the boats came out looking beautiful. And the overall cost wasn’t bad even with buying all the same products in comparison to having the boats done by a yard.

I’m about to take on my first, any tips would be appreciated.

Which paint in your opinion is best, easiest applied for a good result, in a rolling/tipping application.
Going over factory moulded non skid decks, that don’t need sanding off, what system would you apply, as in same paint with a matt finish?

 

[Comodave]

Actually I have not used Alexseal but if I were to paint another boat that is what I would use. They have a tipping additive that allows you to roll it on and not have to tip. It makes it a lot easier if you don’t have to tip. And cheaper since you don’t have to buy a bunch of very expensive brushes. Check out Boatworks Today. He has a lot of videos on painting and some have Alexseal paint being used. You can join his website for $3 a month I think.

 

[Southern Boater]

Actually I have not used Alexseal but if I were to paint another boat that is what I would use. They have a tipping additive that allows you to roll it on and not have to tip. It makes it a lot easier if you don’t have to tip. And cheaper since you don’t have to buy a bunch of very expensive brushes. Check out Boatworks Today. He has a lot of videos on painting and some have Alexseal paint being used. You can join his website for $3 a month I think.

Been watching BWT for a while now, he has some great info, and certainly wouldn’t mind supporting his channel.
I’ve just found the Oz distributor for Alexseal, didn’t realise they sold it in this country!

 

[Comodave]

Yes, the Alexseal results look fantastic. When we would tip a rolled paint job I would usually just throw away the badger or china bristle brushes instead of trying to clean them. It was a lot of work to clean them and used a lot of solvent that wasn’t cheap. And the brushes didn’t work as well as new brushes so we just stopped trying to clean them and bought new ones for every day. So not having to tip the paint is a huge benefit in my mind.

 

[Angry_Chicken]

I've tried them all the best best I've used lately is "TOTAL BOAT" brush on 10sec later smooth with no lines. Dry's nice and hard in case your fairing in one spot and jointing the next area. The I'll not use anything else now!

 

[DBG8492]

I've tried them all the best best I've used lately is "TOTAL BOAT" brush on 10sec later smooth with no lines. Dry's nice and hard in case your fairing in one spot and jointing the next area. The I'll not use anything else now!

We used Total Boat Wet Edge when painting our sailboat last year, and I agree with this.

Two caveats - 1) Single-part poly will never dry as hard as a two-part, and 2) You better make damned sure the surface temp is not too high. There seems to be a very thin line between "okay to paint" and "don't even try it."

We also used Majic Catalyst Hardener in the cockpit area, which definitely decreased total cure time, although I didn't get the chance to test the toughness of the result as we sold her within a few months of painting her.