Painting the bottom on the trailer?

[brackish]

I haven't done the bottom since I've had my boat, it had an epoxy barrier coat and bottom paint done six months before I bought it and it is coming up on 28 months.  When I trailer the boat next month in preparation for a tow south, will inspect and do the bottom if it looks like it may need it.  Plan to use this, red over the current black, to get a wear indicator.  Unless they are making up the test ratings this stuff did well for my conditions:

http://www.boatzincs.com/copper_shield_45_scx_ablative.html

Annually, the boat has stayed in fresh water about 9-10 months, on the trailer for 6 weeks or so and in warm salt water for a month or so.  This year, may be on  the trailer a little more and in salt water a little more, fresh water a little less.

The question is, has anyone done their 23 on the trailer?  paint everything you can get to, then provide support in another area, drop a bunk, paint under, replace and do the other side, paint in between the keel rollers then jack the boat back a couple of inches and get the places that are actually making contact. then jack it back tight.  Sounds great on paper, but has anyone done this?

[skip1930]

I did my 19 on a trailer. Stood her on the keel, dropped the hull bunks.
Hung her from jacked up hull bunks. Sawed off the keel bunks permanently.
Combined this way and that way, the whole bottom was exposed.

skip.

[fried fish]

Antifouling paint. It doesn't get any better than this. Toxic stuff.

I just finished our compac 23 on the trailer. I did borrow four stands from a local friendly boatyard. Jacked boat up to clear bunks and keel elevated just enough to slide a weanie roller below keel and between bunks and hull.

Painted everywhere with two coats , except for where stands were. Removed boat stands. then painted those four spots. Simple enough.

I did remove the trailer guide boards on each side of keel prior for easy access.

Sand with 80 grit. Masks. Gloves would be good for sanding and painting.  2 coats ablative Micron 66 for salt water use down here in Southport, North Carolina. Nasty stuff.

Enjoy. Be sure to have cold beer standing by for a reward.

-Fred-

[Salty19]

These are good descriptions.  Pain in the rear, but not too bad.

I basically just used two scissor jacks with wood under them to spread out the load along teh keel with about 6' poles under the rubrail to keep the boat level (to remove the bunks). Used some straps too.  Painted, then moved the jacks or let it back down to the rollers to get the areas missed. 
Don't forget the loosen the bow winch when jacking it up!  The hard part was doing this 5 or 6 times, one each for each coat of epoxy and anti-fouling. 

Those cheap painter coveralls work nicely to keep stuff off you.  Going to be messy.

[millsy]

Despite the paint manufacturer's claims, I suggest you contact them directly and make sure that their antifouling is compatible with the brand/type you have on there now.  If it starts to crack and lift at a later date, it's 5 times as much work to remove.

Chris
C-23 Dolce

[brackish]

Despite the paint manufacturer's claims, I suggest you contact them directly and make sure that their antifouling is compatible with the brand/type you have on there now.  If it starts to crack and lift at a later date, it's 5 times as much work to remove.

Chris
C-23 Dolce

While that is a good idea providing I can find out what is on there now (PO doesn't know, have to hope the yard that did the work has records), I've never had any problem on boats of the past with ablative on ablative regardless of brand.  I would suspect that one would have to be more careful with the hard racing types.

[skip1930]

My Com-Pac 19 had a hard brown non-ablative factory bottom coat on it.
Went 10 or 11 years before I painted it blue hard coat non-ablative.
What ever was on sale at the ship's chanlery at the time.

[brackish]

Leaning toward just jacking it up and maybe using some movable wedges at the bunks, therefore never moving the bunks from their present position.  Taking it up two or three inches so I can get a roller under the keel and the bunks. 

But where to jack where it would be safe?  ends of the keel, fore and aft?  probably strongest place because there are essentially three sides of support in the keel at those points.  I can get a 12" wide by 8" long 2 by in the spot between the rollers to spread the load across the keel and use a wide plate scissor jack under that.  Is that enough at two points. Maybe 175 PSI with two people jacking at the same time, but mostly transferred to the vertical walls of the keel. The movable wedges will just be for lateral support, won't be carrying much load until the jacking is done.  Thoughts.

slide the keel guides away.  maybe take the carpeted wood off and replace it with a deeper section.  Skip removed his, someone else made theirs taller.  With these gulf coast ramps taller may be better, might even try to build a funneled end to the keel guide.

[wes]

Brack - I am in process of doing my 19 right now. I used four sturdy 2x4's (not the crummy "white wood" studs from HD, but some really nice strong yellow pine ones left over from a previous project) to support the weight under the rub rails. Two per side, tied off to the trailer so they couldn't slip out. I cut them to 66.5" length, with an angle cut on both ends so they sit square on the driveway and under the rub rail. This allowed me to completely drop both hull bunks and paint the entire bottom at one time (except for the spots on the trailer rollers). Worked very nicely. Because so much of the boat's weight is carried low in the keel, there really isn't all that much force on the 2x4's. Don't know if this would work on your 23 but seems like it might, although of course the boards would need to be a little longer.

- Wes

[skip1930]

"But where to jack where it would be safe?  ends of the keel, fore and aft?"
Dead center of the balance point. use a 10" long 2 x 4 lengthwise with the keel.
2-1/2 ton floor jack will lift the whole CP-19, keep the bow in the vee block and cranked tight.

skip.

[brackish]

So I paint all the bottom except for below the bunks, and set up an elaborate support system consisting of three guys per side boat to trailer, and two studs per side, under the rubrail and guyed in two directions to the trailer and supported by the concrete drive, and I'm all set to drop the bunks.  Went to the first bolt with a half inch socket and standard long bar, no cheater, and without jerking, put hard steady pressure on it.  THE HEAD SNAPPED OFF, BOLT DIDN'T TURN AT ALL.  So no bunk painting before this trip, will have to jack it up when it gets to Biloxi for a rest.

[wes]

I feel your pain - same experience with my 1988 trailer. I soaked all those bolts in WD40 repeatedly over a weekend, coaxed them out with a crescent wrench and/or vise grips, then went to Home Depot, rooted around in those big flat slide-out drawers full of their weirdest hardware, and bought half a dozen 1/2" stainless steel replacement bolts that have a 3/8" Allen socket head. They won't rust in place again, and I travel with that Allen wrench in my glove box. Bonus is the smaller size of the wrench makes it easier to get into the tight quarters around the bolt heads, and a half turn or so is enough to loosen the bunks when I need to drop them.

- Wes

[skip1930]

Sailors, copious amounts of Permatex Never-Seize brushed on everything that is a threaded fastener on your trailer.

A little 'Mexican smoke ratchet' [hand held blow torch powered by some butane gas, or Nap gas] to heat things up
and provide some corrosion destruction, and a path for some penetrating oil. A hammer blow and a good 3/8" drive
breaker bar and a bit of a cheater bar to hurry things along. Don't use a 1/2" drive set as it's too easy to bust a bolt off.
Then you need to drill out the remainder of the bolt almost to the threads and tap out with a hammer and chisel
the offending hollowed out bolt. You can try an 'easy out' but never, never break those off.

Side Bar-->I had a three hundred dollar Jeep that took several weeks to break each of the 20 lug nuts loose.
Each day before work and after I'd heat and beat, oil~up and place a bottle jack under the tee wrench
on a lug nut with a block of wood to hold other other end of the wrench up. I'd jack on the tee till the Jeep started
to rise off the ground, and let it sit all day long. I chained the wheel to the frame so it would not turn while the
pressure was on. Come home and I'd see that the nut moved just a bit. Good enough eventually to break loose.

She'll sit on her keel or hang from the hull bunks for scraping and painting.

skip.

[don l]

Looking for a good antifouling paint that we can put on our CP 16 here in Colorado, would be consider a "green antifouing for slime" .  So when they change the Laws up here, we won't have to take the old pant off.  We trailer, but all also keep her in the water weeks at time, non painted at this time.  What say ye?

[brackish]

Looking for a good antifouling paint that we can put on our CP 16 here in Colorado, would be consider a "green antifouing for slime" .  So when they change the Laws up here, we won't have to take the old pant off.  We trailer, but all also keep her in the water weeks at time, non painted at this time.  What say ye?

If only weeks at a time I wouldn't start down that road.  Put it on the trailer and pressure wash it.  It would seem to me you would get very minimal growth in such a short period of time, and no real chance of osmosis getting started.  Bottom paint is a lot of trouble to maintain properly.  I have to do it because my boat is in the water year round, but if it was only a few weeks at at a time, I wouldn't.