Andrei: For a freshwater lake in Wisconsin, skip the bottom paint completely. She will only be in the water at most 6 months out of the year. You are not fighting salt water beasties, just fresh water slime. At most, it will just slow you down a bit. Power wash her in the fall when you pull her out for the season. Being in the water won't harm the gelcoat. It''s made to get wet. Being in the water and ready to go is a much more enjoyable way to do it than setting up and knocking down all the time. Get a dinghy and a set of oars and you are set! Howard (7 hours south of you in Missouri) On Oct 16, 2008, at 3:52 PM, Andrei Caldararu wrote:
Dear Monty sailors,
here is a difficult question. I own a 1982 M-17, and love it. It's never been kept in the water, and so the bottom is the original gelcoat, unpainted. I generally sail it one afternoon at a time, on the relatively small lakes here in Madison, WI, although every once in a while I would trailer it to a bigger lake.
This past summer (I got the boat at beginning of July) the boat was kept on its trailer, and each time I sailed I had to do the whole rigging/derigging game. I am now probably as good at it as I will ever get, and it takes about 50 minutes to put it up, and the same amount to take it down. Unfortunately I am also quite busy, with two kids and a full time job. Because of this, there were quite a few times I didn't go out because there was not enough time to put it up, take it down, and also sail a fair amount.
A friend of mine who has a house on the lake was kind enough to offer me to start using his mooring, for free, for the foreseeable future. This would obviously solve the above problem, but I need to start thinking about bottom paint. Hoopers in Minnesota, where the boat is now for some small repair, offered me the following options:
a) Just bottom paint, about $500. b) Interlux 2000E barrier coat (5 coats) + bottom paint $1750
On top of this expense I am looking at another $3-400 for a small dinghy and outboard to get to the boat. The main question I have is: is it worth it? Should I keep trailer sailing the boat (at a cost of about $250/summer for parking), get just the bottom paint and risk gelcoat blistering, or get the full deal. Any opinions? My gut feeling is that if possible I would like to try to keep this boat for a long time, I really like the way it handles. It's just that $2000 is exactly half of what I paid for it!!
(Unfortunately there is no place in Madison to keep a boat rigged near the water, and I don't have the time nor the place to put the boat up on a lift to do the bottom painting myself.)
Any advice will be highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrei.
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