Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I need help choosing a bottom paint. First I know all products need to be copper free.

I am not sure to put a traditional ablative anti-fouling paint on the boat or an epoxy type coating.

I boat in mostly salt and brakish water. I have the free use of a dock to keep boat in water as much as I like. However if boat sits without use for 3 days plus, I get barnacle growth. Scrubbing off bare aluminum is a PITA. Thus I would like to put on a bottom paint to make life easier on me, and to protect the bare aluminum from the elements

Ideally the epoxy coating would be much easier to apply (no primer coats and water based) and a little cheaper in material cost ($400 versus $520). It would make the boat very slick ( maybe even faster ), making it difficult for barnacles to attach and hopefully easy to get them off when they do. However it is not really designed to retard the growth of barnacles. The manufacturer believes it would do well, however they have not really used it in saltwater applications.

Anti fouling paint is designed to retard barnacle growth in salt water, however my past experiences with anti fouling paint has always been a PITA on fiberglass type boats. Barnacles seem to still grow and it needs to be redone every 6 months to a year. Thus I am not sure which is best?

Looking for wisdom from the forum.

I have bottom paint and barnacles will still grow on the hull. It slows them down, but you still need to either brush the toons every few weeks if left in the water, or power wash them if possible. One of the best anti-fouling paints is Trilux 33. Make sure you apply at least 2 primer coats and 2 pait coats if you go this route.

Yep, etching primer is one mine as well as Trilux 33. Even though some people claim where I boat is "fresh water" (lol), our salinity is way up every summer. Especially this year since we are in a drought. I still get barnacles, but they just start growing, die and flake off easily. I touch up every year and repaint every 5.