Difference in Bottom Paint?
 

Have a friend with a 40 Formula PC. The bottom needs to be repainted. He is being told that there is a difference in bottom paint. A soft and hard paint? I'm not able to offer much help. Any ideas? He leaves the boat in the water all year. Thanks.

the soft paint slowly come's off as time go's by and when you are ready to paint again you just pressure clean and repaint , the hard stay's on and you can only put so many coat's on before you have to sand them off but is supposed to be a few mph faster then the soft .
if i had the bottom paint i would go with the soft so you dont have to sand down the road .
look on the hull truth there is some good info there .
also what iv herd that they do with the soft is put the first coat of a different color then the second and third coat of the color you want , and down the road when you can start to see the other color you it's time to repaint

check out this website
http://www.supershipbottom.com/

I just went through this with my Monterey. The first coat is applyed over a sanded haul and the first coat is to keep the water off the fiberglass. The second coat is what controls the growth. Hard coat is old school in my opinion. I went with the soft which wears off as you use the boat. Since he already has bottom paint, I'm assuming he has the water restriction coat, so he would only need the top soft coat. I didn't loose any top end on my Monterey once I had it bottom painted.

Wife and I redid our cruiser 2 yrs ago during a complete overhaul.
The 1st coat that goes on is a barrier coat, (epoxy) that makes your hull water tight. Does nothing for growth prevention.
Then followed with the antifouling coats. I went with the (soft) ablative A/F since it is less work in my opinion and more appealing to me in how it works. This type is a self polishing as you drive the boat, meaning it slowly wears off, removing any growth doing so, thus always having a
new' coat. Meaning no maintenance. In my use since, I've never had the hint of any growth build up what so ever. I put on several coats, then hit all the high wear areas, keel, chines, etc with another coat. When it wears down to a point of recoat, a simple pressure wash will remove the remaining paint, then just repaint. Prep depends on brands, read the instructions on all brands/types being considered.
The type of water (salt,fresh) also dictates which types can and can't be used. I used Interlux's brand moisture barrier and A/F (Micron CSC) paints. So far US1 is happy.:)

Make sure you read the instructions. Many types require you have to leave a 1" strip around the drives so there is no direct contact with the aluminum. Otherwise you are setting up a condition that can attack the aluminum of your TA's.

Just be sure the painter doesn't make an obvious (but too common) mistake of painting the sacrificial anodes on the drives and trim tabs. They are there to be corroded away instead of the drives.

Great information. I will pass this along. It looks like the soft coat is the way to go. I'm sure that he has this on now, as it is starting to flake off. It doesn't look the best on the sides that you can see above the water line.