I'm thinking of bottom painting my 38 Fountain Express and leaving in wet slip instead of rack. Does anyone have any experience on what impact I can expect on performance? Any thoughts on paint choice?

Well, a few obvious things....

It will slow the boat a little on top end, so you should be cool with loosing a couple Mph. How much varies with boat, load, how smooth the paint is applied etc.. Granted it is usually a minimal amount, but it usually steals a little speed on a bigger boat.

Bottom paint is not simply a do it once and then never again, nor is it something that doesn't need to be maintained or cleaned when leaving the boat in. You will need to still have the bottom blasted off periodically and the paint touched up. How frequently depends on how dirty the water is and how much wear you put on the paint.

If you want it to look nice with paint I prefer Pettit vivid anti-fouling paints. You can have a color selection including white. It gives you a capability to kind of make the boat look as if it is not bottom painted to some extent..

Also one other thing to consider, if you resell the boat some people do not like buying a bottom painted sport boat or go fast, or at least they don't usually like the look of most bottom paints..

Most of the boats we bottom paint are ones that were painted already, or have had a lot of bottom repairs that are looking for the least expensive way to re-coat the bottom and make it presentable.. The vivid anti-fouling is one of the ways..

Granted I really don't get into cruisers which is one of the things that should definitely be bottom painted if left in for long periods. So my opinions here are a little skewed to mostly what I see with trailerable performance boats.

Hope it helps.. Jamie / Lakeside Restorations

I agree with above. The one thing to think about is that while you may loose a MPH or 2 when you first put the boat it, as the summer wears on the boat will slow drastically with out bottom paint and weigh a lot more. The boat with the bottom paint will not slow at all. IMO if you keep the boat in the water then put bottom paint on it, if not then don't.

I ran my 260 Scorpion without bottom paint the first year i had it, kept in the water full season and it was a chore keeping the bottom clean. Bottom painted the next year and saw zero difference in performance but it was way easier to take care of, This was at the bottom of the food chain as far as go fast boats though .

ablatives or "self polishing" bottom paints work well in these applications. they are designed to wear off over time and require less effort to prep when it comes time to paint again, which is typically every year in a "performance" application (most manufacturers advertise multi-season use, but conditions determine duration of protection). pettit does have an extensive selection of colors, but any manufacturer's product will fade.

Thanks for all the input.

I'm redoing a 25 ft Rogue that has bottom paint on it already.. GlassDave, do you have any recommendations for a particular bottom paint? What did you use on your Scorpion?

Gotta make sure your paints are compatible when apply 1 type over another.

Pettit makes a vivid AF paint that is rather nice for a bottom paint and is available in numerous colors including white.. It adheres rather well & can be applied over almost any paints or gels.. We have used if for years now with good results on bottom painted hulls..

Jamie / Lakeside

Great advice, thanks! I have NO idea what's on there now, as the boat was a repo..I was told VC-17 by a paint store..Any opinions on this?