New Paint Job Coming

[Larry650]

Howdy,
Does a canoe move through the water smoother, easier and faster with a brand new paint job on the hull?
My old Sawyer with it's faded, chalky, heavily scratched up gel coat seems kinda doggy to me.
I'm doing a little body work, and a few repairs then it's getting a new coat of red.
I hope it's a bit speedier with a slicked up bottom.

 

[ppine]

No but it sure looks good on the way to the put in. My Dad was in the Navy. He taught us keep everything on boats ship shape and in good repair. We had wood power boats when I was a kid. It was an ongoing ritual to sand and varnish them during the year. Pride of ownership.

 

[Jim Dodd]

I have a couple with Graphite bottomed Cedar Strippers. Though I can't prove it ! I honestly think they are faster, because of it !

The gloss was sanded on both.

Jim

 

[Mason]

You should paint the forward section with hydrophilic paint, and the stern with hydrophobic paint. It'll go forward without even paddling.

 

[Higgster]

I'm glad to see you are painting the canoe red, as everybody knows a red boat is always faster!

 

[Larry650]

Mason, It's hard to find examples of this on You Tube. This canoe doesn't go forward well with me paddling. In fact it would rather rotate sideways then go forward.
Higgster, yes red has it's advantages. It looks faster for sure.

 

[Mason]

Mason, It's hard to find examples of this on You Tube. This canoe doesn't go forward well with me paddling. In fact it would rather rotate sideways then go forward.
Higgster, yes red has it's advantages. It looks faster for sure.

You have to be really careful on how much paint you put on each side to equalize the forces. I guess you could tweak it a bit in case you have an asymmetrical stroke.

 

[Guest]

My old Sawyer with it's faded, chalky, heavily scratched up gel coat seems kinda doggy to me.
I'm doing a little body work, and a few repairs then it's getting a new coat of red.
I hope it's a bit speedier with a slicked up bottom.

Larry, I just finished paint two boats and am about to start two more (on the DIY forum below)

My take on painting boats:

If the canoe needs skid plates I’d install them first, so the epoxy is adhered to the hull, not just to a paint layer.

I would use a color as close to the existing hull color as you can match. Any paint, even multiple coats of high end paint will scratch through when you skreekee over a rock. If you wanted a color change I’d consider a white bottom taped at the water line, and the sides in something close to the existing hull color.

I am typically cheap, or frugal, or stupid. I used inexpensive Rustoleum enamel paint on several previous hulls. It looked good, smooth and glossy. For a few years. Then it lost the gloss, and got chalky. With 90% of the effort going into prep work, filling deep gouges, sanding and washing and taping rolling and tipping the paint coats takes literally minutes. It is not worth all that effort to cheap out in the end and use inexpensive paint.

“Paint coats”. The first coat will use a surprising amount of paint. The second and third coats will use far less. I like at least three coats, each rolled and tipped. The 2[SUP]nd[/SUP]/3[SUP]rd[/SUP] coats do a better job of filling minor scratches. A quart of paint will cover a 16 foot canoe three times, with a little left to spare.

Good light is really important. It is easy to see where you have stopped and started rolling and tipping with the first paint coat. The second and third, being same color on same color, not so much. I use a short foam roller to paint, and a foam brush to tip out. Tipping out is a critical step, to catch any drips or sags and to remove any little bubbles or pimples left from the roller.

I have been really impressed with the gloss retention and claimed UV protection of EZ-Poxy topside paint. I shall see; the next two boats are in the shop and I have a quart of Rustoleum Topside paint (less than half the cost of EZ-Poxy) to try on those.

 

[Larry650]

Mike,
Thanks for those excellent tips. Nothing takes the place of experience and looks like you have that for sure. I agree 100% to go with the same color. This old boat was born red and red it stays.

 

[Cruiser]

I was reading about fairing and hull smoothness ... the summary was that a smooth hull performed with it's designed prismatic coefficient, but even a few scratches starts to cause drag and spoil all that design work.

I think if you are doing the work anyway, if you can fair out that hull (eliminate the scratches) you likely will see a good improvement in the way the boat moves through the water, but as you scratch it up, it will start losing that improvement.



Brian

 

[Larry650]

Hi Brian,
Thank you, that's encouraging. I bought a air powered in-line sander and am now working on the bottom to smooth out the many scratches and gouges it had. This boat looked like a previous owner must have lost it going over some rocky rapids some where, and dragged over portages instead of carrying it. I'm hoping it moves better in the water and looks better out of the water.

 

[Guest]

Larry, the “minor scratches” will be filled if you apply multiple coats of bottom paint. I can’t define “minor scratches”, but I wouldn’t sand too far down in an effort to remove every teeny scratch.

And again, no empirical evidence or GPS speed nonsense, but the thoroughly recoated hull bottoms do seem “faster”, with more glide and less drag. Maybe that is simply conformational bias, and pride in a better looking hull bottom.

dragged over portages instead of carrying it.

Straight up, presented with ashort carry around a strainer, I’m dragging the canoe.

Dynel skid plates.

 

[Cruiser]

I am with Mike, I think I would be likely to fill the scratch areas first and sand them back to the original level, than actually start removing what is there to level them.


Brian

 

[dougd]

Sometimes you can't do anything but drag it over!