We have previously written about the paint system we are using on Wind Horse. This is an Ameron/Devoe system which we sourced in New Zealand based on the suggestion of our friend, Dale Morris, at Ventura Harbor Boat Yard.
After 11,000 miles last year, and a few encounters with ice, there are several nicks in the bottom paint which need repair. The basic paint system is in good shape and the antifouling has performed well.
For those of you thinking about an aluminum boat, here is the Ameron system that we used:
Against bare aluminum, Ameron 302 Zinc – One coat.
Barrier coats, Ameron 235 epoxy – three coats.
Antifouling – Ameron ABC #3 ablative.
The top of the bottom paint is finished off with a bootstripe of LPU enamel to seal the edge of the bottom paint system. Topsides, of course, are left bare.
Posted by Steve Dashew (January 30, 2009)
January 6th, 2015 at 3:39 pm
Is Ameron system still your preferred anti-fouling system for aluminum hulls?
Thank you
(I am a naval architect and we design some commercial aluminum vessels. I was approached by Coppercoat and have read enough to make me tired of the subject. Obviously the perfect paint doesn’t exist. Maybe it never will, but in the meantime we need to use something and a 10 yr cycle for bottom jobs would be attractive to some clients.) Thanks again.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:44 pm
20 years ago we tried Coppercoat on some of the Sundeer Series yachts we built. All ended up being painted with conventional anti-fouling. We don’t know if Coppercoat has gotten any better in the interim. There are a number of paint systems available for aluminum hulls. The one company we would avoid is International Paint, having had serious problems many years ago with them on one of our projects – where we were forced to go to court for redress.