The bottom line

[Michael Rogers]

My little boat has a flat bottom. Not flat like a punt or a dory, but essentially flat, and such that the two bilge runners (which I have capped with brass keel strip) don't really provide much protection for the area between them. Her shape is actually the main reason she is amazingly stiff yet likes to plane. So, useful - but leaving her vulnerable to scrapes when, for example, she is pulled up for a lunch break on a beach which the falling tide reveals is a bit on the stony side, and she has to be re-united with the water across the stones. She is very light, so pulling her back into the water is (too?) easy

There were a few such scenarios in September, on the England Raid on the Fal and then at Teifi, and I subsequently found her bottom quite scratched, down to the glass sheathing in places. Annoying - I had used two pot Jotun applied with care - and really unacceptable. Something needed to be done. I could touch up, but what could I do to make it less likely to happen again? Three things, I decided -

First, obviously, accept that care is needed, and be more careful. When lifting help is available, ask for it (I really am silly in that way); more, don't refuse it when offered (ditto). She is very light! Simples, or what.

Second, is there something even tougher than normal two-pot paint for me to put on her bottom? I asked SML Paints (really helpful people), who suggested Jotun Marathon 500. I genned up and asked questions. This is an extra-tough but flexible epoxy two pot paint, which they list as a primer: it goes well on bare surfaces, especially steel (it is apparently supplied for use on ice-breakers), but will also bind well to carefully prepared (two-pot) painted surfaces. Unlike a normal primer, however, it doesn't need to be overpainted; it comes in a wide range of colours; and has a gloss finish. Intriguing?! Oh, and it will cure (slowly) at temperatures just above freezing: and, once applied, will continue to cure satisfactorily under water, though this ruins the gloss finish (without affecting its other properties). Price about the same as all the other exorbitant two-pots.

I decided to try it. I'll report on the crucial issue - ongoing toughness - next season, but herewith a brief account of using the stuff. I turned Cavatina over, and thoroughly sanded the entire area of her flat bottom panel and the adjacent first strakes on both sides, which are nearly flat and very wide until they flare up to a height of about a foot up the stem post (so her prow will be protected for ice-breaking duties). (In the process I established, incidentally, that there was nothing wrong with my initial painting.) The paint itself is a bit thicker than the others I had used, and the hardener looks really evil, like semi-liquid caustic soda.

The recommended technique is with a brush, applying one thick coat of 500 microns (= half a millimetre!) or two thinner coats. Have you ever tried putting paint on that thick?! I just can't do it, and I've settled for three thinner coats; but I slapped it on very thick by normal painting standards. It doesn't like being brushed out, but doesn't run or creep on vertical surfaces. Quite user friendly when you get used to it. I chose the same green as the rest of the hull - and it matches exactly! Well, so it should, and it does. And the finish is extraordinary; it is, if anything, even glossier that the topcoat I used, although it isn't easy to brush it absolutely flat, which won't matter at all on her bottom.

I recount this in case it's relevant to someone else's needs. The proof of the pudding, of course, but I'm impressed so far.

Third, it occurred to me that a useful bit of kit would be a tube of some tough flexible material, with an air valve in one end and the other end sealed off, so that it could be blown up into a sausage about 3 ins in diameter and about 5 - 6 ft long, for use as a roller to move a small boat over, for example, shingle: then easily deflated and rolled up to stow on board in a locker. Is there anything like that on the market? - maybe with some un-boat-related function? (And in case one of you think that's such a good idea that it should be patented, would you please have a word with me first? - thanks.)

Michael           Trouper 12 Cavatina

[Michael Rogers]

The answer to my third point is - yes, there is an inflatable boat roller on the Force 4 website. Chunkier than I had in mind. Any other offers? Perhaps I'll have a go at making one from flat hose.

Michael

[Julian Swindell]

Hi Michael
I always used to launch my old Drascombe Dabber using two large fenders as rollers. I would roll it out of our garden, and down nearly a 100ft of stony beach. It can be done by one person, but with a lot of moving back and forward with fenders. With two people you can move continuously, so long as the roller slave runs back and forward fast enough (they never did). It works very well, but you do need two if you want to avoid any scraping on the bottom. I think the force 4 inflatable rollers should work well. They need to be quite large diameter. 3-4" diameter wouldn't get over even small stones. And they would need to be blown up hard, so you would have to carry a foot pump with you.

[Tony]

Your experience with paint got me thinking, though not to any practical benefit, I fear.  (Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose! )
We use paint on the bottom of the boat for decorative and protective reasons and dragging the boat over stones or, worse, shell, does quite an efficient job of removing it.  (The point loadings must be huge and if repeated regularly, will make short work of the epoxy/ glass surface protecting the ply beneath, too.  Look at the state the bottom of a roto-moulded canoe gets into after a seasons use.) 
So, as a protective surface, the paint will only work if you don't beach the boat!

Inshore fishing craft have always had the same problem – so what alternatives did (do?) they employ?

1.  Drying out and repainting? (How many times a year?)

2.  Never beach the boat – anchor off and use a dinghy. (....but many Swallow boats ARE dinghies!)

3.  Deploy rollers/skids under the boat before you take the ground.  (...like the beach boats at Hastings. Do-able, I suppose, but single handers  might struggle.)

4.  Coat the bottom of the boat with a relatively scratch-proof material, like bitumen tar.  ( Is tar any better than two pack paint and how would I melt the stuff? Could use this, I suppose:- http://www.wickes.co.uk/Cementone-Multi-Purpose-Bitumen-Mastic-For-Roofs-5L/p/164201 )

5.  Cover the bottom of the boat with a sacrificial material, thick enough to resist penetration.  (Fine for keels and runners but a false skin on the bottom of a dinghy has never been used as far as I know.)

6.  Copper sheathing was used as an antifouling (and anti-Terodo worm) measure but famously stripped off in high seas.  (If securely glued, rather than nailed, to the hull, would copper sheet protect against abrasion? I think it might.... and would look fantastic... and cost quite a bit! )
http://basiccopper.com/  for everything you've ever wanted to know about copper sheet.
http://www.metalsheets.co.uk/pages/copper-sheets a British supplier (one of many)
Erm...If you have ballast requirements why not use lead sheeting instead of copper?

7. Build your boat hull out of thick, rot-resistant timber ( western red cedar, chestnut, larch) , trample a few mackerel  (other oily fish are available) into the bottom boards  and stop worrying!

There! That was a BIG help, wasn't it!

[Michael Rogers]

Yes actually, Tony: thanks, and I'm not being sarky. Some pretty clear thinking there, and you clearly have a tidier mind than mine.

Your (4) is, I suppose, what I'm trying to do with this Marathon stuff. Watch this space. It's likely to end up as a combination of (4) and (1), once a year if I'm lucky. It goes on a treat, anyway, and at the moment I've plenty left over (Jotun's minimum pack size clearly has cruise ships in mind).

One of the positives about my boat is how light it is: if there are other folk around, two people can lift and slide, over a few yards anyway, in a way which greatly reduces the actual scraping force. I've just been so stupid/pigheaded/optimistic in such situations - 'Need a hand?' 'No thanks, I can manage, she's so light' (followed by scraping noises). Also it's just a sort of discipline, on a beach with a falling tide, to keep her half floating with frequent little shoves off and adjustment to the anchor line: that's however urgent attention to the sandwiches may be (or, in the case of the England Raid, to the superlative beer at the adjacent pub. That beer, by the way, did for my post-prandial navigation. I turned up at the wrong channel-marking buoy, in Carrick Roads, for the afternoon race. By the time I'd sorted myself out, the others were half way to the next mark. Tail-end Charlie me.).

I wonder how much copper sheathing my boat would a) add to the weight, b) detract from my bank balance! (Don't bother to work it out, Tony, thanks all the same.)

Thanks for your experienced comments, Julian. I think I've gone off the roller (+pump!) idea for voyaging. Far too much kit for a v small boat, and I've got a very good launching trolley for my 'home port'.

I bet you all can't wait to hear how it all goes, scrape-wise, next season (yawn).

Michael

[David Hudson]

Good morning Mike

It was always thus.

Beach on fine sand unprotected? Perhaps but not recommended.

Beaching on a mixed shore? How about two 'flat' fenders slung under the hull, fore and aft? They are easy to store and won't roll out from under and can be used for raft ups etc.

"Practice safe sailing"

[Michael Rogers]

That's not a bad idea, David. Thanks. I happen to have some flat fenders.

Thinking about all this, and the various comments, I think my 'attitude' (if that is the right word) to beaching boats stems from the 'old days', sailing traditional clinker built boats which would be hauled up a beach and down again to the water without a lot of thought to what was happening 'down there' (I am getting dangerously close to jokes about bottoms, which I have avoided so far). Presumably any resultant damage was dealt with during the annual winter overhaul - I wouldn't know because I was a kid and boat maintenance was the responsibility of the owner, my beloved grandfather who provided the boat for his children and their offspring, at a time when precious few youngsters had the chance to sail.

I will be much more careful in future, and meanwhile continue to try to find a revolutionary solution to this problem which I can patent and which will make my fortune, very much on a 'better late than never' basis.

[Julian Swindell]

Michael
Have you thought about an Anchor Buddy, which should save you having to drag up the beach at all? Someone had one at St Just on the Raid and I was very impressed. Planning to get one myself for next year. They are only about £30 from Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Xcite-Sports-Anchor-Buddy/dp/B00AN5MELU

http://www.tuggyproducts.com/anchorbuddy.html

PS A scratched boat is a used boat. I don't lose any sleep over it, I just touch up or repaint over the winter. That is why I don't like complex two pack paints. I use Toplac on the outside of the hull, but I must confess that I have started using Dulux Weathershield on the cabin and cockpit for the last few years and it works extremely well. Water based, so it is easy to clean the brushes and very easy to touch up scratches. Seems completely durable in the sunshine. I'm not sure what advantages marine paints really bring.

[Michael Rogers]

Julian

Terrific idea, thank you. I too saw the Anchor Buddy in action at Falmouth, outside that pub whose name I forget but whose beer ('Proper Job') I will never forget, and deployed by Chris Stanley who 'won' the competitive bit of the Raid single-handed in his 14 ft dinghy - terrific sailing. But I'd forgotten about it, and will give it serious thought. Aren't Amazon amazing - I just wish they'd pay their taxes (and then their prices would probably go up: sigh).

You're right, of course, about scratches etc. I am actually a two pot convert because of its general toughness; and, using disposable syringes for measuring, v small amounts for touch-up aren't a problem. I think you're also right about the 'marine paint' mystique. I discovered, for example, that old-fashioned concrete-lined swimming pools can be emptied and painted with pretty normal domestic emulsion, then just filled again! I'm sure Weathershield is up for the 'marine environment'.

Anyway, I've put on the toughest coating I can find on my cosseted boat, an Anchor Buddy may well help, and thank you for encouraging me to 'relaxez vows'!

Michael

[Julian Swindell]

It was the Pandora Inn at Restronguet. We went back twice after the sailing visit. We are planning to go again next year.

[garethrow]

Anchor buddy looks interesting - how does it work?

Regards

Gareth Rowlands
Gwennol Teifi S17

[Michael Rogers]

Gareth, the second of the two links Julian has supplied shows a perky little video which gives you an idea of how an Anchor Buddy works.

Essentially it's a length of elastic anchor line, with a fair degree of stretch. Approaching shore, at a distance probably judged after much practice, you drop anchor plus buddy, and then propel the boat to shore, clambering out with a bow line FIRMLY in your grasp, and allow the elastic to draw the boat back offshore. When boat again required, you pull on the bow line (which you securely belayed to something), board the boat, again allow the elastic to draw you off, then hoist sail and away.

Neat idea. Should ease my bottom-scraping problems considerably. I don't know what the breaking strain is. Plenty of scope for merriment from onlookers, at least at the learning stage, when you forget to hang on to the bow line as the empty boat withdraws to an unreachable distance: or when the elastic pull OUT exceeds the available oomph to get the boat IN to shore so that you can land. Julian's right, for my little boat it should work a treat. For you ocean liner skippers.....well, why not let Julian try it next year and report back?!

Michael

[Julian Swindell]

Breaking strain of the anchor buddy shouldn't be an issue. It is basically a 50ft loose braided nylon rope, with 14ft elastic cords inside it. When you pull it to full length, the elastic is stretched to the length of the nylon sheath. When you let go, it retracts to the 14ft contracted elastic length. If the elastic fails, you will still have the nylon rope down to the anchor, but your boat might have drifted further away than you planned! what you probably need is a good little grapple anchor for teh end of you bow line, so that doesn't get pulled into the water. Sadly, I had one for years, never used and just sold it last year. Now I probably need to get another one.

[garethrow]

Thanks Michael / Julian - I had missed the second link to the video. I might put one on my santa list.

Regards

Gareth