new member, and peeling paint inside the aft bilge

[ssmit7]

Hello everyone,

I'm in the Northern Va area and have a 2008 Sportsman 180 that I keep on the Occoquan River. It was originally sold by Norfolk Marine in Norfolk Va, and I bought it from a friend who was the first owner. I used to keep it up on the Potomac in DC proper, but realized after a couple seasons that "urban boating" wasn't for me and so moved the boat out of the city towards cleaner water and better fishing.

Hopefully if this question isn't posted in the right area of the forum someone will let me know....

The inside of the aft bilge is painted, but it is cracking and peeling pretty seriously and I am not sure why. Incorrect storage? Too damp? Defective paint? Too cold? I have some pictures which I tried to attach to this post, but got an error saying "Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached.", so I am not sure what's up with that. If there is a different/better way to share them let me know and I will do so.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Stephen

 

[sampeeter]

COATING THE BILGE WITH EPOXY PAINT

Much, though not all, of the paint flaked off as we cleaned and degreased the bilge. Our goal is to have a bilge that is clean, as dry as possible, with the fiberglass protected from the effects of water.After debating the merits of various paints and coatings, we decided on a two-part epoxy paint that bonds a hard, shiny, white shell onto the fiberglass.We ordered a supply of Water Gard 300 an "Immersion Grade Cycloaliphatic Epoxy," from Progressive Epoxy Polymers — two gallons of the Part A white pigmented base, plus 1 gallon of the Part B catalyst. Paul Oman has a very helpful website and communicated well via email while we were researching coatings. The Water Gard 300 is low in VOCs and was not unpleasant to work with — even in the cramped, unventilated confines behind the engine — but the Xylol we added to thin the Water Gard, even in the small amounts we used, was very irritating and required opening hatches to vent while working.I began with the easiest part of the bilge — the salon portion — accessible, shallow. After the first day, I phoned home, complaining that it was the messiest, most difficult project I'd ever undertaken, and that I would never do it again. The stuff soaked through my clothes, coated my skin, every single tool, and all my carefully-taped drop cloths, with sticky white goo.

 

[suzukidave]

so petersam, are you ellen or david?

http://www.epoxyproducts.com/bilge_paint.html

 

[ssmit7]

I thought that looked a little like copy/paste from somewhere....

Anybody else? I guess I will try calling the dealer, although with the nearest dealers being in Deale MD and Richmond VA, neither are very close to me...

 

[ssmit7]

I sent an email to the service manager at Tri-State Marine in Deale Md, and got a very rapid response, which I was then able to followup with a short phone call this morning. I'm impressed. For the benefit of anyone else running into this, I figure I would post the result.

From his email: "I looked at the bilge area pictures and this is a cosmetic problem it is not structural. You can clean the bilge, scrape off all loose gelcoat then the area will need to be sanded good before it can be re-gelcoated."

A quick call this morning clarified that it doesn't _need_ to be repainted, only if it bugs me too much. He suggested Interlux BilgeKote if I do decide to repaint.

Now I know I get can safely get in there with some bilge cleaner make it all pretty.

 

[DennisG01]

Well, I guess I'm a little late to the party. But to add something to the response you got... The gelcoat that's typically used in bilges is slightly different than what's used on the rest of the boat. I don't have the full technical explanation for you, but basically, it's a "waxy" type gelcoat. If you want to repaint it, you must make sure you sand it well to remove that waxy layer. The rep is also correct that it's cosmetic. If and when you decide to do this, the first thing to do is to get in there with a chisel and start peeling/flaking off more of the gelcoat. I've been surprised sometimes, at just how far you can keep going to get all the flaky stuff off. But you need to do that or you're wasting your time when it comes to painting. The Bilgekote paint is good stuff.

 

[ssmit7]

Thanks Dennis for the additional info. I doubt I will re-paint it at this point, since there are also things like hull waxing that still need to be done.

The major issue was that it wasn't clear to me whether the paint was there to protect the fiberglass from getting wet or just to look nice, making me uncertain about spraying a bunch of water around in there. Now I know...