The degree of flexibility in your hull is a key factor in choosing the right paintC/O FAIRLIE YACHTSBOAT CARE
M
arine paints are expensive, but with good reason. “It’s not
so much the cost of the raw materials, but the amount of
effort and investment that has gone into the research,”
explained Berthon’s Dominic May, in charge of the firm’s
cutting-edge painting section.
To get the longest life from your paint, you need to
achieve a perfect application, and many boat owners leave
that to the professionals.
I went on a paint-spraying course run by Marineware,
the distributors for many well known paint brands,
including the professional Awlgrip range, and discovered that,
perhaps unsurprisingly, human error is usually the cause
of early paint failure. “It is nearly always poor preparation and
poor application,” explained Marineware’s
Simon Crawford. “People apply paint
to a moist surface in temperatures of 5°C,
then wonder why they get a patchy finish.”
Once again, it boils down to using the
five basic rules, but apart from choosing a
high quality paint that has been formulated
for the marine environment, you also
need the right type.
“Single-pack paints are ideal for boats
where the substrate has a high degree offlex, but if you have a more rigid hull, then a two-pack system
will give a much harder-wearing finish,” May explained. “In
addition, some brands are better to polish than others, so are
known as ‘repairable’.”
Awlcraft is a typical example. The product is still a
two-pack formulation, where a hardener is mixed in ratio with
a pigmented base – but it is slightly softer than the Awlgrip
alternative, so readily allows polishing and retouching
with no visible edges.
The paint companies are all working hard in a highly
competitive field driven by the huge superyacht market.
Jotun, for example, has just developed a high quality
formulation that has caught Berthon’s attention for its
ease of use and high pigmentation.
Meanwhile the Italian company RMC
(Rodoero Marine Coatings Srl) has created
an odorless and hard-wearing water-based
gloss specially aimed at the classic
yacht interiors market.
Further research is ongoing all the time,
so by investing in a specially formulated
marine product – rather than a hardware
store’s finest – the time between
repainting your boat is extended.PAINTS
“People apply
paint to a moist
surface in
temperatures of
5 ̊C then wonder
why they get a
patchy finish”