TRYING TO DECIDE WHICH TYPE OF PAINT IS BEST FOR YOU?

 

ABLATIVE OR HARD 

 

Ablative Paint - Ablative paint is a soft bottom paint that is designed to wear away as your boat is used. The water, moving over the boat's surface, wears away the paint, which exposes fresh layers of biocide, so that the antifouling qualities are continuously renewed as long as some of the paint remains on the boat's hull. Ablative paints can be applied over other antifouling paints, so there is no need to remove the previous paint before applying your new coats. It is a good decision to apply 2 - 3 coats when applying ablative antifouling paints, and an extra coat on the high wear areas suchs as the water line and the bow. If you regularly take your boat out of the water, you will want to be sure to use an ablative paint rather than a hard paint.  Hard paints will go bad after being taken out of the water and allowed to dry.

The drawback to ablative paints is that, because it's such a soft paint, you will remove some of the paint whenever you scrub down the hull. Also, ablative paints will wear away faster from trailer rollers and bunks and in high-friction areas such as the rudder.

 

Hard Paint - These paints aren't designed to wear off the way ablative paints do. If you usually use your boat for high-speed motoring, or frequently scrub down the bottom, a hard paint is probably your better choice. The hard antifouling paints start leaching out biocides on contact with the water, in a sort of timed-release fashion.

After usually 10-12 months, the paint has leached out all of its biocides, and a new coat of paint will be needed.