Summary: Ablative paints are SLOW. Get a sprayed hard bottom. Your bottom
is only as good as the prep work, spend an afternoon fairing it with a 3M
fairing board.
I think that there are a few people in our fleet who have been unduly
frustrated in their quest for speed. Faired keels, new sails, and years
spent sailing still leaves the top of the fleet out of reach. I personally
think that bottom work has done more to take me from being consistently last
in the fleet than anything else, including new sails.
Many of the wet sailed boats, including mine when I got it, have a
traditional ablative bottom paint. This paint is soft and rough. Even
though I was cleaning my old ablative bottom before races, it's cratered
surface was never going to be fast. From what I understand, this type of
thing is very difficult to avoid with an ablative bottom as the paint
gradually flakes away.
A hard paint will maintain a smooth surface over the life of the paint job
and not flake off like an ablative. You will also be able to to give it a
light wet sanding with 600 grit to make it super smooth before it leaves the
yard.
Steps:
1: Remove all of your old ablative bottom paint. It will bleed through and
screw up your new hard paint. This is a must first step.
2: Your bottom is now down to gel coat, spend a day or so going over it
with a long board. If there are any divets etc... Fill them with fairing
compound and sand them smooth. The end product is only going to be as good
as the effort you put into this step!
2.5: You may need a barrier coat. Talk to your yard or paint manufacturer.
3: Pick a hard bottom paint and get it sprayed on. Get it sprayed.
Sprayed is smooth, sprayed is faster.
4: Give your bottom a light sanding with 600 grit after it has dried.
Light, we don't want to take too much off.
5: Clean your bottom before every race you care about doing well in. And
make sure your diver is treating it well. Pettit vivid should only be
cleaned with smooth carpet, I think I am going to use a sponge this year.
Paints: I personally like Pettit Vivid because it comes in white which is
easy for me to clean. Michael Tosse at Svendsen's recommended Proline 1088
with graphite mixed in. Kim Desenberg at KKMI says they like Micron 66
which he thinks is harder than vivid. I'm sure there are other solutions.
The key is to get a hard paint and prepare the bottom well.
Tools: 3M makes a great fairing board. It made a huge difference when I
was working on my keel. I have one that you can borrow.
Don't let your yard push you around into doing what is easiest for them. If
you have questions ask the list.
Finally, I want to point to the results at the last Scombridae Sunday.
Kevin McElroy and his brother Darren got 3rd of 8 boats in the after lunch
racing. I know that Kevin only got the boat last fall and just started
sailing a year and half ago. This was the first time he had raced the
boat. He just got a sprayed Vivid bottom (yellow as you may have noticed)
and cleaned it that morning. Old sails, no rockstar crew, just some hard
work in the yard and a smart young man at the helm.
I think that getting the right bottom on the wet sailed boats in our fleet
will make the racing tighter and more fun for everybody. Clarifications,
corrections, personal experience... let us know.
Pete
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