paint or gelcoat?

[papayamon2]

Just bought my first Sunfish--an '81 in what seems to be good overall condition, although the blue stripes and splash guard are pretty scratched up. (The blue splash guard is scraped down to white along the top, which looks pretty bad.) I'd like to recoat them w/ blue, but my question is whether to use a polyurethane paint such as EasyPoxy or to regelcoat them w/ blue gelcoat. Anyone have any experience here?

Thanks!

 

[mike4947]

I will say I have used gelcoat, but if paint would make it look acceptable I would paint. Gelcoat at least IMHO is a real pain to use.

 

[Tim Polaski]

I painted one this spring and it came out nice, but by the end of the season, the paint had a lot of scratches at the top edge of the splashrail from the boom resting there when the sail is down. Gel coat is more durable in that regard.

 

[papayamon2]

Tim,

What kind of paint did you use?

 

[Sailtome]

Do you have to spray gel-coat or can it be applied with a brush or something? Thanks
Robert

 

[Sunfishsailboat52981]

I did mine. Here is the article I wrote. This is from our club newsletter. My article is over several newsletters. Read this: Then go to the next one.

http://sailhsc.org/newsletter/August2006Fsl.pdf