thataway
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2018
- Messages
- 139
- Location
- Florida
- Vessel Name
- Thataway
- Vessel Make
- C Dory 25, pilot house trailerable cruiser
However, my wife and I plan to haul it to Florida this Covid winter and travel around in salt water for approximately 2 months. I estimate it will be in the water an average of 2 weeks at a time, then trailer to a new location.
A lot of difference between Northern waters and S. Florida Waters. I happen to live just up Perdido Bay from 83GB and also have an 18' CC (Catamaran) fishing boat. It lives on my boat lift or a trailer, except for a period of 5 years when we kept it in the water at Marathon, (Keys) Fl. We have Vivid bottom paint top of the 20 mil of epoxy. We and our neighbors used the boats every day in the Keys. After 4 months in Marathon there was no significant growth on our boat. Several neighbors had gel coated boat, with no bottom paint. These had to pull their boats weekly, pressure wash, and still had some barnacle plates attaching to the unpainted hulls. Basically the cleaning procedure is pressure wash, scrape any barnacles which have adhered, and then use strong acid or calcium resolving chemicals to try and remove the rest of the barnacle foot plate. Nothing stronger than barnacle "glue".
My advice is to bottom paint. There are many factors which go into the value of a used boat--bottom paint or not. I did sail boat ocean racing for many years, where we burnished the bottom paint weekly or sometimes tx a week to have the "fasted bottoms"...