Considering painting a J24 hull, any advice on what paints work well for racing?

james123

Member
I recently bought hull number 4464 and am fixing it up to race. The boat currently has standard hull paint on it. I sanded the old paint down a bit because I took it to North Americans in Charleston as part of a junior team earlier this month, so I need to paint it soon before barnacles start to grow (the boat stays in the water). I am wondering what paints are good for racing and staying in the water nearly year round. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
On another note, when we weighed the boat in, it was about 50 lbs. heavy. There are probably 6-8 layers of old paint presumably because the bottom wasn't sanded before new paint was applied. Could that be the culprit? There are a few shallow chips in the gelcoat which I don't believe are deep enough to have become waterlogged, but who knows. Also, is there a way to tell if the keel has been faired without getting class measurers involved? If I'm going to redo the bottom I want to get it all right the first time. Any advice would be awesome!
 
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When I bought my J24 about 5 years ago, it had the same problem. Too many layers of antifouling bottom paint. What we did was to sand all the bottom paint off down to the Gel coat. paint with an epoxy barrier coat then I would go to your local marine store depending on the water where yo live an ask them what paint to use. If you are going to race the boat, and trailer, most people use a hard paint. Balta plate. My boat is in the water from May to October, and I have it cleaned every other week. I used Petit Vivid color hard bottom paint. We sail in Long Island Sound, not the cleanest water but we have had great success with that bottom paint.

After we took off all the bottom paint and put on 1 coat of Balta plate, my boat floats 2 inches higher. we must have had at least 8 coats of paint on the boat from the previous owners. it definitely is most of the weight on the boat.

For class measurements, I am not an expert, but there is a ton of information on the class web sites.

good luck
 
When I bought my J24 about 5 years ago, it had the same problem. Too many layers of antifouling bottom paint. What we did was to sand all the bottom paint off down to the Gel coat. paint with an epoxy barrier coat then I would go to your local marine store depending on the water where yo live an ask them what paint to use. If you are going to race the boat, and trailer, most people use a hard paint. Balta plate. My boat is in the water from May to October, and I have it cleaned every other week. I used Petit Vivid color hard bottom paint. We sail in Long Island Sound, not the cleanest water but we have had great success with that bottom paint.

After we took off all the bottom paint and put on 1 coat of Balta plate, my boat floats 2 inches higher. we must have had at least 8 coats of paint on the boat from the previous owners. it definitely is most of the weight on the boat.

For class measurements, I am not an expert, but there is a ton of information on the class web sites.

good luck
Thanks for the advice! What is an epoxy barrier coat? Would that be the equivilent of primer or is it more similar to gelcoat?
 
I put 4 coats of interprotect 2000 ,it is an epoxy barrier coat that is essential for any boat that is left in the water. A barrier coat creates a barrier that inhibits osmosis of salt water through the factory gelcoat into the core. Which is how a boat can gain weight. I then went with Petit Vivid , because i like the color choices, sand it down to 220 and have had a great finish for the last 2 seasons.
 

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