My little boat has a flat bottom. Not flat like a punt or a dory, but essentially flat, and such that the two bilge runners (which I have capped with brass keel strip) don’t really provide much protection for the area between them. Her shape is actually the main reason she is amazingly stiff yet likes to plane. So, useful - but leaving her vulnerable to scrapes when, for example, she is pulled up for a lunch break on a beach which the falling tide reveals is a bit on the stony side, and she has to be re-united with the water across the stones. She is very light, so pulling her back into the water is (too?) easy
There were a few such scenarios in September, on the England Raid on the Fal and then at Teifi, and I subsequently found her bottom quite scratched, down to the glass sheathing in places. Annoying - I had used two pot Jotun applied with care - and really unacceptable. Something needed to be done. I could touch up, but what could I do to make it less likely to happen again? Three things, I decided -
First, obviously, accept that care is needed, and be more careful. When lifting help is available, ask for it (I really am silly in that way); more, don’t refuse it when offered (ditto). She is very light! Simples, or what.
Second, is there something even tougher than normal two-pot paint for me to put on her bottom? I asked SML Paints (really helpful people), who suggested Jotun Marathon 500. I genned up and asked questions. This is an extra-tough but flexible epoxy two pot paint, which they list as a primer: it goes well on bare surfaces, especially steel (it is apparently supplied for use on ice-breakers), but will also bind well to carefully prepared (two-pot) painted surfaces. Unlike a normal primer, however, it doesn’t need to be overpainted; it comes in a wide range of colours; and has a gloss finish. Intriguing?! Oh, and it will cure (slowly) at temperatures just above freezing: and, once applied, will continue to cure satisfactorily under water, though this ruins the gloss finish (without affecting its other properties). Price about the same as all the other exorbitant two-pots.
I decided to try it. I’ll report on the crucial issue - ongoing toughness - next season, but herewith a brief account of using the stuff. I turned Cavatina over, and thoroughly sanded the entire area of her flat bottom panel and the adjacent first strakes on both sides, which are nearly flat and very wide until they flare up to a height of about a foot up the stem post (so her prow will be protected for ice-breaking duties). (In the process I established, incidentally, that there was nothing wrong with my initial painting.) The paint itself is a bit thicker than the others I had used, and the hardener looks really evil, like semi-liquid caustic soda.
The recommended technique is with a brush, applying one thick coat of 500 microns (= half a millimetre!) or two thinner coats. Have you ever tried putting paint on that thick?! I just can’t do it, and I’ve settled for three thinner coats; but I slapped it on very thick by normal painting standards. It doesn’t like being brushed out, but doesn’t run or creep on vertical surfaces. Quite user friendly when you get used to it. I chose the same green as the rest of the hull - and it matches exactly! Well, so it should, and it does. And the finish is extraordinary; it is, if anything, even glossier that the topcoat I used, although it isn’t easy to brush it absolutely flat, which won’t matter at all on her bottom.
I recount this in case it’s relevant to someone else’s needs. The proof of the pudding, of course, but I’m impressed so far.
Third, it occurred to me that a useful bit of kit would be a tube of some tough flexible material, with an air valve in one end and the other end sealed off, so that it could be blown up into a sausage about 3 ins in diameter and about 5 - 6 ft long, for use as a roller to move a small boat over, for example, shingle: then easily deflated and rolled up to stow on board in a locker. Is there anything like that on the market? - maybe with some un-boat-related function? (And in case one of you think that’s such a good idea that it should be patented, would you please have a word with me first? - thanks.)
Michael Trouper 12 Cavatina
