Boat is kept in fresh water for 6-7 months. Gets moss, etc growing on the bottom. Is Trilux 33 my only choice for bottom paint. Seems like it's designed for a marine environment. What is the preferred coating for a 14' aluminum boat kept in fresh water? Thanks...
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Bottom coating
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FWIW I keep my tin boats in brackish waters, and we have to use anti-fouling paint, but IMHO Trilux 33 is the WORST and expen$ive and I've never seen it work for anyone!
Now NONE or the copper-free AF paints are cheap, but we've had great success with Sea-Hawks copper-free paint (there are > dozen tin boats at my boatclub that I help maintain, where all but 1 are painted w/ AF). But as a bonus this brand can be bought in pints sized cans, $38 a pint - yikes, but available in gray to mostly match a tin hull. I'd say most other copper-free AF paints are available in quarts and run around $70-$75.
https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=97450
That said, one lone guy at the dock puts nothing on his 'welded' tin boat, but takes it to the nearest beach every week or so and goes over the hull with a scrubbie pad. I'd not take the chance of no AF paint on a riveted boat in saltwater, but clearly that use in not your situation.
Maybe others here have ideas for you?
I once put many coats of wax on my highly polished stainless steel trim tabs and that worked for most of the season until late Fall, where I think the low angle of the sun contributed to slime growth, but it did wipe right off!
Now NONE or the copper-free AF paints are cheap, but we've had great success with Sea-Hawks copper-free paint (there are > dozen tin boats at my boatclub that I help maintain, where all but 1 are painted w/ AF). But as a bonus this brand can be bought in pints sized cans, $38 a pint - yikes, but available in gray to mostly match a tin hull. I'd say most other copper-free AF paints are available in quarts and run around $70-$75.
https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=97450
That said, one lone guy at the dock puts nothing on his 'welded' tin boat, but takes it to the nearest beach every week or so and goes over the hull with a scrubbie pad. I'd not take the chance of no AF paint on a riveted boat in saltwater, but clearly that use in not your situation.
Maybe others here have ideas for you?
I once put many coats of wax on my highly polished stainless steel trim tabs and that worked for most of the season until late Fall, where I think the low angle of the sun contributed to slime growth, but it did wipe right off!
I've been keeping my boat in the river for 6-7 months a year for the last 6 years. I haven't used any paint on the bottom and it gets a nice algae growth that I scrub down several times during the season when the water is warm enough to get into it. The bottom of the boat is fine, but the side that faces the sun gets more algae growth and it has finally started to eat away at the factory paint. You can scrub the growth and remove it. I had an older Boston Whaler that had some AF paint on the bottom and the algae grew on that just like my tin so it had to be scrubbed to remove it as well. If you didn't scrub the algae, when you pulled the boat at the end of the season, it would die off and stink up the place for a long time. I'm not sure the AF paint will stop any growth, but it might help protect the hull from exposing bare aluminum if the factory paint gets eaten away.
Dale, as a rule, do boats with that Sea Hawk Smart Solution get several seasons out of their paint? Does one color hold up better than the next? Sales brochure says their paint does not get a water line scrunch line. Is that the case with season long slipped boats in your area?
Being an ablative and not the expen$ive brands, we only get the 1 season. There are multi-season copper-free AF paints but I think they're only available in gallons and those cost $225 or better! I did use on once and it was PHENOMENAL though - zero growth!tucker99 said:
Like the other poster opined, any 'static' hull may need to be cleaned, with the difference being how easy to clean. I'd talk to people in your area, as keep in mind my experience is from tidal brackish waters. Being tidal, the diurnal tides (~2X per day) do help the 'washing' of the boat hulls, but if not used one does get build up.
IMHO you have nothing to lose to try waxing, if even just the topsides area from the waterline and down a few inches to the running bottom, that's where most growth appears as the sun lights the hull where it meets the water.
