When I used to crew on a racing sailboat many years ago, part of the spring prep was to burnish the new bottom paint w/ bronze wool. The idea was to knock down the roughness on the hard racing paint. I don't know if it worked, but we once hit 12.9 knots on a spinaker run. When the owner spent thousands of dollars on sails every year it was hard to argue about a little extra work.
bud,<br /><br />What are you trying to do?<br /><br />If you're thinking about adding bottom paint, "burnishing" means roughing up the gelcoat, or old paint, to accept new.
DJ,<br />I am trying to just scrape of the old anti-fouling paint and apply a new coat that will be smooth and cut through the water with as little drag as possible. This is a 24' Slickcraft and will never be in the ocean any more except for a jaunt or two to Catalina island and just cruising the local lakes. It will sit on the trailer most of the time. I had a hard Interlux on the bottom when I was back on the Bush river in MD but I am back home in Calif. now so I really am not too concerned with slime or barnacle build-up. I just want to paint the bottom and leave it alone for a long while. I realy am not too interested in wanting to paint it every season and it is too time consuming and costly to completely strip it to the base gelcoat and buff it back out. I just want a good, durable, slick blue bottom!
bud,<br /><br />I understand.<br /><br />You are going to have to get that old anti fouling paint off before you apply a "slick paint".<br /><br />The anti fouling properties of the anti foul paint will "shed" your slick paint just like it would marine hitchhikers.
