I contemplated having Bonito's bottom painted this year and Chris Maher, who's opinion I value also stated that for racing, only a sprayed hard bottom should be considered. He did talk me out of painting though; he convinced me that even the best painted bottom won't be as fast as bare gel coat. I understand another consideration to be, that hard bottom paint can handle being out of the water so, if you do dry sail your boat and want a painted bottom, this may be your only option.
Michael Andrews
811 Bonito
-----Original Message-----
From: tuna-bounces at myfleet.org [mailto:tuna-bounces at myfleet.org]On Behalf Of Pete Trachy
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 12:11 PM
To: List Satanna 22
Subject: [Santana 22] How To Wet Sail and Be Fast
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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