Bottom painting - first time!

Hi,

have just bought a beautiful new 19ft boat. It's never had antifouling botom paint as it's been a trailer boat since 2000.

I have to paint it - it's gonna stay in water for 7 months (it's almost a shame).

I've dificulties locating online guidance/manuals for how to apply bottom paint for the first time.
Does anyone in here have some links?

My biggest issues is creating the "water line" (dont know what it's called in English...).
Hope you can help.
thanks.

Re: Bottom painting - first time!

Interlux has a lot of info on their site.

http://www.yachtpaint.com/

Check out the boat painting guide and the Paint system adviser links specifically. You are lucky, getting the old stuff off is the real pain

Re: Bottom painting - first time!

The easiest way to determine the waterline is to put the boat into the water, and place some pieces of tape at the waterline to mark it. Place them where you can use masking tape to create straight lines from tape mark to tape mark used to mark the waterline.

Before you paint the hull, you must get any wax off of it. I also recommend priming the hull so the paint sticks better. The best primer is a high build, 2 part epoxy barrier primer. This seals the hull so no water will penetrate. I use three coats of Pettit epoxy barrier coat and then two coats of antifouling paint. You need to recoat the epoxy primer at different times, according to temperature, so read the instructions.