Soda Blasting, Barrier Coat and Keel Repair

[JD5652]

I will be doing a barrier coat job on my boat this winter and as I go along I'll document the process here on SFC. My plan right now is to go back with five coats Interlux 2000E barrier coating plus a marker coat of ablative. Right now planning on using Micron Extra self polishing bottom paint.

Anyone have suggestions on other products from real life experiences?

Got the boat hauled and soda blasted last week. Here are some preliminary pics that the soda blasting guy took. Looks like I'll also have a keel repair to do. Any suggestions on the keel repair?

[sclancy]

i highly recommend the "carolina coat" used by many (most?) bigger sportfish boats. apply barrier coat and then do 3 coats of interlux VC offshore, wet sanded and burnished to the chine. this is a teflon vinyl based paint that will hold up for 3-4 years without recoating (just touch up each year). it is a smoother surface and nonablative. nearly everyone who uses it claims better speed and efficiency over other ablative paints. Micron CSC or another hard ablative should be applied fom the chine to the waterline and around the waterline going forward to the bow. this is the high growth area due to sunlight and the VC does not perform welll here at all. the ablative does not much better and gets repainted each season. Interlux used to "advertise" the carolina coat system but i dont see references to is anymore....most larger boatyeard know about it. Note: you can paint ablative over vinyl but not vinyl over ablative....so where the two paints meet and overlap slightly, ablative must go over vinyl...this is easy, just do the bottom first to the chine in the rear and to just below the waterline at the bow and then finish with ablative.

this winter we are starting over on the same system after getting 5 season out of the VC offshore (just touching up annually) although we got a lot of small tube barnacles on the VC offshore this last season so I think 3-4 yrs without recoating is the max.

[Bligh]

Do not ever support an ocean yacht on its keel! You will find it not so easy to repair if done properly! I believe instead of filling it with high density putty or a combination of same putty and specificly placed structual lumber they just threw scraps of wood and any resin and putty they wanted to use that day. I know how I would fix it but it might be cost prohibitive$?

[fishfighter]

Big bucks to repair that keel if done right.Chances are you have some rot down there.

[Bligh]

Guess hes not concerned?

[JD5652]

Bligh-

I did respond to your PM..... I'm definitely concerned about how to go about the keel repair. Any words of wisdom??

Thanks!

[fishskipper]

Bligh-

I did respond to your PM..... I'm definitely concerned about how to go about the keel repair. Any words of wisdom??

Thanks!

Capt. Troy Crane just repaired one at the yard we are hauled up in and as Bligh said you have to be real careful setting her down on blocks. You must support her on stands first. Your boat needs to be raised and re blocked. Make sure they block with the lengths of wood running long wise not cross wise as in your picture. The longer the wood block is along the keel the less weight the keel has in one place. You'll need to grind down the damaged area and glass it underneath going up both sides of the keel. Troy used epiglass and it worked really well. He then used adteck to fill the glass before he primed and painted it. I did one a few years back and it took awhile to dry out before we could work on it. You will need to drill holes and let her dry out real good and make sure there is no rot.The 44 that Troy just did,needed to be opened up in the engine room and suck the water out with a wet vac.The 55 footer I did had a hollow keel filled with foam.Good luck hope this helps

[Bligh]

Yes a professional only especially someone familiar with ocean repairs. I used to hire Ocean Yachts glass people and I always had to re teach them the right way! The boats were a great value for the money but John Leek just didnt want to put more glass in them?That was money to him! and weight! As the last post said dry is most important! If not you could cause the rest of the keel to get even softer if you seal it up wet! Next Try to strengthen the internal part of the keel as much as you can? Open it up until you have all dry material if you can? Once you have it back structually then and only then you will have to take your time with One layer of mat after resin coat starts tacking{Good Vinylester resin} Get all air out of mat. When that tacs almost dry! You can put first layer of structural glass on and get all air and excess resin out so gravity doesnt win! Keep completing above procedure if you can? If you let it dry between layers or you get a mess or lump in the glass you have to grind. Gravity is the hardest part on how big a piece of glass you can work with! finish as stated above post or any comparable water proof finish. Remember normal polyester resin is not water proof. Yes Vinlyester which works the same way but cost more is water proof.Good Luck I will PM my cel phone if you need? Wish you wernt so far from South Jersey Im kind of semi retired.

[JD5652]

Thanks guys! She'll be up on the hard for the rest of the winter, so I think she'll have enough time to dry out. I'll be headed to the yard this weekend and get them to re-block her the right way.

The keel was not damaged prior to this when she was hauled in June to change out props.

I contacted Ocean Yachts and according to them, the keel should NOT be blocked......PERIOD! The keel is not designed to take the weight of the boat. Evidently, 10-12 poppets are suppose to be placed around the boat in a way that no blocking of the keel is necessary.

A-R-R-R-G-G-H-H.....now I get to argue with the yard over the repair.

[JD5652]

i highly recommend the "carolina coat" used by many (most?) bigger sportfish boats. apply barrier coat and then do 3 coats of interlux VC offshore, wet sanded and burnished to the chine. this is a teflon vinyl based paint that will hold up for 3-4 years without recoating (just touch up each year). it is a smoother surface and nonablative. nearly everyone who uses it claims better speed and efficiency over other ablative paints. Micron CSC or another hard ablative should be applied fom the chine to the waterline and around the waterline going forward to the bow. this is the high growth area due to sunlight and the VC does not perform welll here at all. the ablative does not much better and gets repainted each season. Interlux used to "advertise" the carolina coat system but i dont see references to is anymore....most larger boatyeard know about it. Note: you can paint ablative over vinyl but not vinyl over ablative....so where the two paints meet and overlap slightly, ablative must go over vinyl...this is easy, just do the bottom first to the chine in the rear and to just below the waterline at the bow and then finish with ablative.

this winter we are starting over on the same system after getting 5 season out of the VC offshore (just touching up annually) although we got a lot of small tube barnacles on the VC offshore this last season so I think 3-4 yrs without recoating is the max.

Clancy-

When you redo the VC Offshore portion, do you have to sand that area down to the barrier coat?