Roger Long
Senior Member
VC 17M Extra is ubiquitous on the Great Lakes and considered primarily a fresh water paint. However, I have had very good experience with it in 10 years of snow birding on two different boats, one sail and one power. I bought both boats in Detroit and nothing else can be applied over it so I’ve been stuck with it but found it very satisfactory, until now. We didn’t even need to paint the bottom until our second ICW trip and the paint had a good deal of time on it when we bought the boat.
I always painted myself, the last time in August of 2019. The boat then spent a month cruising Long Island Sound in September and on to Georgetown MD where it spent a month on mooring. It then went to Tybee Island, GA for another for another month in a slip over the holidays. We cruised to Saint Augustine, FL where it spent the month of February in a slip while we lived aboard before returning to Norfolk where the boat was hauled for a month while we returned home. There were only a few scattered barnacles and the discoloration was slime that could be easily scrapped off with a fingernail. We didn’t even have the boat pressure washed but just put it back in the water.
About a week after launch, we hit a log in the southern Chesapeake and had to have the boat hauled to repair shaft and prop damage. We decided to have the yard also paint the bottom so we could go right aboard on return due to Covid and the rather remote location.
We cruised from the yard back to Georgetown MD where we left the boat on a mooring for the month of July. The boat spent the month of August and September far up the Hudson River where barnacles are unknown and on a fresh water cruise of the Erie Canal. We then took it to Little Creek, VA where it spent a month in a slip before proceeding to Saint Augustine moving nearly every day on a fast delivery style trip. We hauled out in Saint Augustine last week to find the bottom covered with live barnacles.
Question: Did the yard screw something up here or is this just one of those things that can happen when conditions are right?
The picture with the prop was taken just after haul for the repair and the other picture is what we just found.
I always painted myself, the last time in August of 2019. The boat then spent a month cruising Long Island Sound in September and on to Georgetown MD where it spent a month on mooring. It then went to Tybee Island, GA for another for another month in a slip over the holidays. We cruised to Saint Augustine, FL where it spent the month of February in a slip while we lived aboard before returning to Norfolk where the boat was hauled for a month while we returned home. There were only a few scattered barnacles and the discoloration was slime that could be easily scrapped off with a fingernail. We didn’t even have the boat pressure washed but just put it back in the water.
About a week after launch, we hit a log in the southern Chesapeake and had to have the boat hauled to repair shaft and prop damage. We decided to have the yard also paint the bottom so we could go right aboard on return due to Covid and the rather remote location.
We cruised from the yard back to Georgetown MD where we left the boat on a mooring for the month of July. The boat spent the month of August and September far up the Hudson River where barnacles are unknown and on a fresh water cruise of the Erie Canal. We then took it to Little Creek, VA where it spent a month in a slip before proceeding to Saint Augustine moving nearly every day on a fast delivery style trip. We hauled out in Saint Augustine last week to find the bottom covered with live barnacles.
Question: Did the yard screw something up here or is this just one of those things that can happen when conditions are right?
The picture with the prop was taken just after haul for the repair and the other picture is what we just found.