J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Freshwater Bottom Paint

Like Russ I am eating the elephant one bite at a time using some steak sauce occasionally. I have a small amount of glasswork to complete as it gets warmer, then fairing and barrier coating, but then it is on to something more normal like bottom painting.

Majic Carpet will be in freshwater 95% of the time with some short stints into saltwater. What bottom paints would work well for this situation?

The two most popular racing bottom paints around here (western Lake Erie,shallow,warm and loaded with algee) are VC-17 and its West Marine comparable, and E-paint

E-paint works better for anti-fouling. Chemicals in the paint react with water and sun light to create a gas that kills the algee - suppose to be environmentally better too. We tested it on our club race buoys and we were impressed

E-paint is a bitch to put on. Extremely toxic. Wear eye protection and paint outside if spraying. Also, 8 of 10 that used it had it peel off in big sections. Manufacturer says they didn't follow very rigid pre-paint instructions that include applying 3 coats of their barrier paint

New paint called Black Widow will get a look from us. Don't know anything about it other than cost = 2-3 times cost of VC. Rumor has it that it is a "fast" bottom paint

I can buy the VC 17m at a discount, so will likely go that route. Then I get to decide just how much barrier coating is really required over epoxy lamination. It seems like 4 coats of these primers is overkill over an epoxy lamination, but I don't ever want to have to deal with what I have done over the last year.

One downside to VC-17 is you cannot paint most other bottom paints over it. If you don't like it you will have to strip it before going another route.