Bottompaint or not?

[mikeg]

Hi all,

We bought our Compac 19 in July '06, and I have yet to address her "bottom" issues. She currently carries the somewhat bedraggled bottompaint that she had when we bought her. In other words, the bottompaint has uneven splotches and is peeling slightly under the keel.

We sail her in water that is somewhere between brackish & fresh, on the St. Johns River (Florida) between Jacksonville and Orlando...and she lies on her trailer at our riverside marina after each daysail. We occasionally trailer to saltier waters, but rinse her bottom thoroughly after these excursions.

So I'm thinking of scraping (or having scraped) her old bottompaint away, and leaving her with her 'virgin' tan fiberglass bottom--- saving us the future hassles of scraping and repainting (since we "rinse" her after each sail) since she does lie on a trailer, and is mostly sailed in brackish to fresh seas.

Would y'all weigh in on this?  --I was frankly thinking of re-bottompainting her anyway, just because of the silly premise that she's always had bottompaint. But now I'm thinking bottompaint might not even be necessary anymore (her previous owner sailed her off Charleston, SC harbor, and chose to bottompaint her for that reason).

Also, it would be great to hear folks' experiences regarding removing/replacing bottompaint. Did you folks do-it-yourself, or have a boatyard/marina do it?

Parallel to that line of questioning: If I were to scrape-it-myself, what might be the proper way to jack up a Compac 19 so that areas normally resting on her trailer bunks could be accessed for scraping? Would this require 'yard stands/hull jackstands'? I assume so, but I'm pretty clueless. So maybe this is a sign that I should just eat the cost of a boatyard within trailering distance doing the work--- or at least having my marina hoist the boat so that I can get at all areas of the hull.

Thanks for any suggestions/comments,
Mike G.
s/v "Freebird", 1987 Compac 19

[pelican]

I use a pressure washer to remove loose paint..
Then wet sand and I use a 10'' buffer with a heavy liquid rubbing compound available from west marine. Use a good marine wax after the paint is off. Be careful with pressure washers, they can take off more then paint.

I prefer this method over chemical strippers.. Others may prefer chemical strippers.

I prefer using marine jack stands.. that is the safest way.. But I assume that you want to do it on the trailer.....  It can be done. Fix the trailer so it can't move/roll.

Take 4 long 2x4s and prop the boat up under the rub rail at an angle. Purchase or make 4 foot long 2x2 stakes.

The 2x4 s propping up the boat are staked to the ground. Drive the stakes in good and nail the 2x4s to the stakes. ( I prefer doing in the yard and not on pavement.  Now the bottom is secure...

Run 2x4s horizontally across the top, joining (nailing) the 2x4s togeather at the top. This keeps them from spreading/moving.

Purchase ratchet straps from Home depot and hook them to the horizontal 2x4s near the rub rail and run them over the top of the boat to the trailer and ratchet tight.  Basically, you have built a box and leaned it up against the boat under the rub rail. It is staked at the bottom and strapped in at the top. That keeps the top in tight under the rub rail. With top and bottom secure, nothing should move.

Do one side at a time.... Now you can drop the bunk. The boat weight is on the keel... The bunk balances the boat and keeps it from tipping. The bunks support very little weight

This takes about 30 min to construct once you get the idea.... There are other ways and some of these folks may have a way that works better for you. Be safe and don't get under anything you don't feel good about.

Terry

[mikeg]

Thanks Terry. I'll definitely try to do the 'still on the trailer' method- as opposed to jack stands. Will report back (hopefully with pictures) once she's done.
Mike

[Craig Weis]

Pelican
Holy cow. That pounding wood into the earth is work!

I just take two lines and tie from the deck cleats to the trailer on one side and loosen up the bolts and drop the the boards from under the hull on the other side.

I use my floor jack to raise these posts back up to there former position and snug up the bolts in the square tube pockets. EZ as pie. These don't carry much weight. So don't make them lift the boat when you put them back as you said in your post.

With the keel firmly on the trailer rollers and keel boards on both sides of the keel the boat is not going to tip over as long as one side of boards are under the hull and that side of the boat tied to the trailer.

Occasionally I simply place a 2 foot long 2x4 about at the balance point under the keel and lift the whole darn boat up and off the trailer. The whole boat on the 3 ton floor jack. That's how I put my straps under the boat and wrapped them around the carpeted trailer boards. See the picture of skip's trailer on 'skips pics' in the photo gallery.  Maybe I'll try to put that pic here. Opps can't figure it out. skip.

[pelican]

Skip,

Thats southern enginering  LOL!

We have a 41 Morgan on the hill with almost the same configuration.... It went through three near hurricanes and is still sitting tall, propped up with good old southern pine.


Terry