I keep my boat moored in salt water all summer long and agree with Dave's advice. If you can, avoid bottom paint. If you can't, use copolymer (a/k/a self-polishing) paint. Someone else mentioned a barrier coat. If your gelcoat is in good condition you DO NOT need that. The usual practice is to use hard paint the first season and then let that act as a guide coat under self-polishing paint of a different color in subsequent seasons. When the hard paint starts to show through the self-polishing paint, it is time to recoat. Also, when you first paint gelcoat, you must thoroughly clean AND dewax it, no matter how old the boat is. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Scobie" <scoobscobie@gmail.com> To: "For and about Montgomery Sailboats" <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2016 12:07:14 AM Subject: Re: M_Boats: What to do if you want to put an M-boat in Salt water fora time.. Gail: for a couple of weeks ... like two ... the bottom should be fine; BUT will need the bottom power washed, like at a 'do it yourself' car wash. i've done this with my own boats many times. if you go more than a couple of weeks you need to investigate bottom paint (see my prior email with a link to choosing bottom paint as i cover in more detail what i just covered in the last couple of sentences). a lift is an option ... but expensive. there are a couple of Sage 17s moored on a lift. to see a picture of one - https://sagemarineblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/sage-17s-seen-from-space/ (in this above link look at the S17 to the far left.) :: Dave Scobie :: former M15 owner #288 - http://www.freewebs.com/m15-name-scred :: M17 #375 SWEET PEA - http://www.m17-375.webs.com :: Sage 17 #1 - AIR BORN - http://sagemarine.us/sage_17.html :: Sage 15 sloop #001 - ASOLARE - http://sagemarine.us/sage_15.html :: SageCat #000 - SAGECAT - http://sagemarine.us/sagecat.html On Wed, Sep 28, 2016 at 9:58 PM, Gail Russell <gail@zeliga.com> wrote:
I was thinking in terms of a few weeks.. Sounds like, if I do that, I had better be ready to commit to bottom paint.
I have seen large boats docked in floating air-filled docks, which elevates them above water. I wonder if that would not be prohibitively expensive for an M-17.
Gail