Bottom painting on the trailer

[Potcake boy]

Good morning all, hope you are enjoying your morning coffee and paper, because I am about to put a little stress into your lives.

Today I am going to attempt to paint the bottom of my boat while it is sitting on the trailer at home. It's not that I expect to enjoy this endeavor, but the last time at the yard it was just shy of $400.00 for the haul and work area for four days. Of the group of retirees out there I feel confident of your sympathy.

I have painted the bottom of smaller boats while on their trailer, but this 23 is a little spookie. My plan is to do one side at a time by tying the opposite side securely to the trailer frame and to some tie down points in my driveway (required here for driveway storage during hurricane season). Of course the weight is borne by the keel and would probably stand on the keel with no additional support, but in practical terms you need something to prevent it from toppling over. I'm thinking I will remove the keel guides and paint everything but the bottom of the keel and the area under the bunks that support the sides of the hull. When all of that is finished I'll lower the support bunks long enough to paint and dry then return to original position. Repeat the same on the other side. I'll just have to accept that there will be some growth on the bottom of the keel, but I may be able to clean that while it's in the water.

So if I never post another message then you will know that something went wrong, and let it be a warning to all who may attempt this daring financial strategy.

If anyone has done this successfully, I'd appreciate an account to compare to my own plan to see if I have missed something that would make it simpler and/or easier.

Thanks in advance

[brackish]

Ron I've successfully done it twice.  My first approach was to do what you stated, i.e. stabilize one side to the trailer then drop the bunk on the other side.  The first bunk post lock bolt broke off when I attempted to loosen it and I wasn't using a cheater, just a standard ratchet wrench.  I then decided to put two jacks under the keel between the keel rollers fore and aft and jack it up off of the bunks.  I made wooden plates out of a piece of two by ten to fill the whole area between the keel rollers to spread the weight.  What I found is that it stayed on one bunk, came off the other a few inches probably because my drive way had a slight slant laterally.  So I did that side, then tied that side to the trailer lifted again and did the other side. While up on the jacks, i did the keel above the rollers, then when lowered did the keel between the rollers.  I first removed the keel guides to get them out of the way.  Worked fine, not an easy job, you won't be saying I can't wait to do that again.  Hardest part was crawling around under there with trailer parts in the way.  Remember to loosen your trailer winch at the bow, if you jack it up.

If you decide to lower the bunks, soak all the bolts with a penetrating compound and have a torch handy for soak heat, tap, cycle

For the two jacks, I used the jack from my truck and an inexpensive scissor jack from harbor freight. 

On the way home from the marina I stopped at a car wash and pressure washed the bottom to get most of the gunk off, then did it again when I got home with my own pressure washer.

I had some fairing sanding boards left over from when I built an epoxy composite skiff, helped to sand under the bunks.  Used a mini roller to paint under but still got a lot on the bunks, I won't have a problem with sea growth on my trailer.

Feel free to PM if you have any specific questions about the process.

I didn't take any in process pics, here is finished before I put the keel guides back on.

[Potcake boy]

Brackish,

Thanks for the tips and encouragement. One thing of note is that my trailer has a bunk for the keel and no rollers. Your's looks the same as my Magic Tilt, so they must have found it more cost effective to use a piece of PT lumber and cover it with a plastic slide pad. I wish mine had the rollers, as the keel doesn't go all the way to the front support and presses down on the bunk just behind the support. In fact the bunk is now splitting and will need to be replaced when the boat goes back in the water. When retrieving on a steep ramp the keel contacts the bunk in a position aft of the front support, so that when you winch it up tight and the pull the boat up the ramp out of the water it tilts back instead of the keel moving forward. You end up with the boat about 12" farther aft on the trailer than it was designed for. Fortunately our marina is within our community and so the trip to my house is only a couple of blocks.

I will provide an update in a day or two when I am finished.

[Razor]

I painted my boat just as you said, lowering the bunks after securing the boat so that it would not want to lay over. I recommend marking the posts holding the bunks with a sharpie magic marker so that you can get the bunks back to the exact same height as before and not have to guess.

Also, I crawled around beneath the boat painting the bottom of the keel between the rollers as best I could. And yes, I did get some bottom paint on the rollers, but the rollers have not grown barnacles since! lol

I had the boat in the water for appx 6 months but have the boat back on the trailer now for a few upgrades to the boat. It is amazing how well the bottom paint worked in preventing marine growth, and also amazing the amount of marine growth in areas that were not painted or painted good, mainly the bottom of the keel. It is obvious where the rollers were before, which did not get paint. Before I relaunch her, I am going to try to pull the boat back several inches so that i can coat the bottom of the keel good with paint. I probably should try to jack it up to paint, but it is pretty intimidating to remove supports and crawl under a boat knowing the 2000 lb plus boat may fall over!

Terry

[brackish]

Yes nice having rollers, seems that my launch/retrieves are easy regardless of the ramp slope.  You can probably convert, particularly if you have the holes already in your angle bracket.  Roller/axle sets not that costly.  I would not want to drill holes, too hard to replace the galvanizing.  My trailer is a Performance, but they went out of business.  Austin Machine Works, in Panama City, FL bought a lot of their stuff at auction and will make a trailer any way you want and they are very reasonable.

I did this job this time last year and am going out Tuesday to my shallow spot to gently sponge the years worth of growth off.  Don't get barnacles here, but the marine plant growth is significant.  I can get three seasons if I do the in water every year. 

[Potcake boy]

Got the first half completed except under the bunk. It was getting late so I called it a day. It was easier than the small boat because of the extra clearance underneath, I sat on the ground and painted. It wasn't that much more difficult than when the boat was on stands. I have been using Petitte Hydrocoat and have been quite pleased with it here in the warm salty waters of Florida.

The lower rudder stock was pitted with corrosion so I painted it with West System GFlex which also sealed the area around the point that the stock enters the rudder, which was found to be leaking some. I bottom painted over the epoxy so I can now leave the rudder down when docked. I hope the epoxy holds up, as that would solve the problem of pitting. I refinished the rudder stock casting with aluminum primer and flat black paint, and used lot of Lanacoat around the gudgeons and bolts. Hoping that halts the galvanic corrosion in that area.

With the hull and deck all polished and the bottom painted, she will be looking like a new boat once again. Can't help but love these boats, they always come through.