GottWhat wrote:
As I said before, the boat would be rack stored. Used a couple times a week in fresh water for only half of the year. Will never be in the water over night. I really do not think bottom paint is necessary for our use.
However, after reading the comments above, if we buy a boat with bottom paint already in place we will likely not return it to plain gelcoat as it is just not economically feasible. On the flipside, we will not be adding bottom paint to a boat without it.
I dry store my boat at the marina just like you plan to. It sits in the water every weekend from Saturday morning at 9am til Monday afternoon. Marinas don't have staff on duty 24/7 to put boats away. Most are 8-5pm and final call for rack storage at my marina is 330pm. So if you plan on boating on Saturday and don't get back by 330pm it's sitting tied to the dock overnight. If you boat Sunday also it will remain in the water until Monday when they get around to rack it. When I tell my Marina to rack my boat Monday morning sometimes it doesn't get put away til Tuesday and as late as Wednesday depends how busy they are.
I currently don't have bottom paint and I wish I did. Even the 10-12 days it spends in the water a month has seriously browned the white (tanic acid) and it's a nightmare to keep the alge off. Sometimes I go early saturday morning before they launch it to scrub it off. Needs an acid wash too. Maybe I'll do that this weekend.