Boat Paint

I've recently gone over the bottom of my 4000 and I've learnt a lot, so I thought I'd pass on the single biggest thing that will help.  Before you spread on gell coat to fill any gaps sand the bottom first.  This gets rid of minor scrapes anyway and it makes it much easier to find the scrapes that have to be filled. 

This advice would have saved me a days work because I went straight ahead and filled, then sanded flat and realised I'd missed bits and so had to spend time filling again and waiting for it to harden and then sand again.

If spreading water around when using 2 pot be careful that the air is not too damp. Several years ago I had a problem where the varnish two pot turned milky after painting it on the boat (caused apparently by the damp). I guess temp, time of year, etc will also have a big impact.

Maybe paints have changed since then.

I used to use pads to paint with. You get a much smoother finish (no brush lines) and gives an appearance much closer to a sprayed finish. Not noticed them around recently but then I've not been looking for them either.

Ian

I used international 2 pack on a wooden boat about 6 or 7 years ago and I think it still looks good though I haven't seen it for a while so couldn't swear to it.

I used the best quality brush I could find with long soft bristles and applied the paint in a Union Flag pattern to give even coverage and avoid brush marks. once the paint had hardened I flatted it out using 1200 grit wet and dry wetted with white spirit to avoid clogging and then polished the hull using International rubbing compound and then T-Cut (the stuff used on cars, it's a very fine abrasive polish). This gave a really good finish.

I didn't spray the paint on the advice of International. Apparently, when sprayed the paint produces some nasty cyanide type toxins and closed, forced air, positive pressure breathing apparatus should be used.

one drawback I found with the paint is that it was slightly translucent, so if you intend to cange the colour of your boat it might be wise to use an undercoat first, otherwise don't bother.