End of season - boat is back to the shop

 Pulled the boat out November 2nd.  I would have done it earlier when it wasn’t cold and rainy but something came up.

The anti-fouling paint on the bottom worked very well.  Very impressed with it.  It is the ePaint EP2000.  It is a hard sailing racing bottom paint that gives off hydrogen peroxide when exposed to light.  White is the best color for maximum anti-fouling protection.   We stopped wiping with a soft brush about a month ago to allow the growth to build up.  Sounds funny but part of the waterline wasn’t right so some of the red top paint was underwater.   I wanted to let algae grow on those spots to help me set the new waterline for next year.   The only growth that happened during that month was on the red paint.  Oh, a little bit underneath the flat area of the stern.  Not much sunlight getting down there especially with the winter darkness.

This winter I will add fresh layers of EP2000 per manufacturers instructions.   The rudder being vertical and out on the edge had the most wear visible of the EP2000.  You can see in the last picture that the gray epoxy primer underneath is starting to show through in blotches.  The rudder is also a high flow surface, easy to scrub with the brush (so I probably did it more) and I think I may have only put 2 coats on it.   

Thumbs up for ePaint EP2000 from me!   

Latitude and water quality and temperature also factor in.  I’m in Newport, Oregon (45 North) and the boat is in saltwater, fairly clean with tidal flow.  Water is in the 50F to 60F range during season.   Boats normally get algae, small barnacles and eventually mussels if not protected.  Algae is fast growing and barnacles don’t take too long to show up either.