Aluminum boat owners - What are you going to use for Antifouling bottom paint?

I store my boat in the US so I could probably get mine done down there.
Is there a good product down there for a boat that spends most of the year on a trailer and is in the water no more than 2 weeks at a time?
 
Isn't there some.new stuff that is super slippery that you can just wipe off growth? So slippery your boat might slide off the bunks? It's not paint. I'll go fin the name.
 

This stuff. Interesting concept. I don't moor my boat, and I don't want it sliding off the bunks willy nilly either.
 
Ok. Last post....aparently it needs a clean eavery 10 weeks. Not and anti fouling coating.
 
Hullmax.....Nasco marine? Saw it on Live2boat on Instagram.

Here's that little video clip:
 
OK honest question so don’t slaughter me….is bare aluminum that bad? I have a 2023 Duckworth that I have put in a marina from May 1 to October. When I pull it out I get it winterized which includes pressure washing the hull. I get that there will be some growth during that time in the water but does that warrant painting or are you talking about boats that essentially stay in the water year round? Again, honest question.
Cheers
 
OK honest question so don’t slaughter me….is bare aluminum that bad? I have a 2023 Duckworth that I have put in a marina from May 1 to October. When I pull it out I get it winterized which includes pressure washing the hull. I get that there will be some growth during that time in the water but does that warrant painting or are you talking about boats that essentially stay in the water year round? Again, honest question.
Cheers
When I worked on shellfish farms, none of our aluminum work boats were painted, as we didn’t want the toxins near the product. That said, we had a marine ways and a commercial pressure washer to keep the boats clean. Cleaning them on a trailer is a pain.

In the summer there can be a lot of growth in a month. If there’s a big barnacle set, your boat will be completely covered in a couple weeks. Sometimes if we left the boats too long we’d have to scrape them with a hoe, as even the pressure washer would fail. You’ll also never get back to a smooth hull without sanding, as the base of the barnacles are stubborn. That however was in a high growth area.
 

This stuff. Interesting concept. I don't moor my boat, and I don't want it sliding off the bunks willy nilly either.
OK honest question so don’t slaughter me….is bare aluminum that bad? I have a 2023 Duckworth that I have put in a marina from May 1 to October. When I pull it out I get it winterized which includes pressure washing the hull. I get that there will be some growth during that time in the water but does that warrant painting or are you talking about boats that essentially stay in the water year round? Again, honest question.
Cheers
Adding the epoxy barrier coat required before bottom paint is an effective way to electrically isolate your boat from stray currents in the marina. I’ve never been that worried about preventing growth, but preventing galvanic corrosion is a priority.
 
I am wondering the same thing right now. Contemplating blasting it to bare aluminum and leaving it that way. Copper scares me since there is always potential to chip the barrier coat while trailering. Perhaps with a better barrier coat than I currently have it will be fine.

Can anyone recommend the best place to have it repainted - somewhat close to Nanaimo.
What did you end up doing? I am going to moor an aluminum at Nanaimo Yatch Club trying to figure out what to do.

1) Nothing, pull out every 2-3 weeks to clean
2) Epoxy only
3) Epoxy and bottom paint
 
I did the full clean, sand, etch, prime/epoxy layer then anti-foul. As others said epoxy to isolate the hull as much as possible. Antifoul because my boat lives in the dock year round.
 
I did the full meal deal last year. This year Bottom painter thinks we can go with a mild touch up. We had really heavy barnacle growth around the trim tabs and where the bottom of the lower units that sit immersed an inch or so.

Boat comes out Monday Morning so we will find out how many boat dollars will be involved.

He has been telling me that these new rubber based bottom paint is the cat's butt.

One Boat Dollar =$1,000 CDN

I will update tomorrow
 
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