I recently bought a new 240 SDX...

[Good_Vibes]

I recently bought a new 240 SDX for my Charter business and keeping it at the marina has posed a little problem.  After my Captain returns from a sunset cruise, the marina is closed and the boat stays in the water all night.  Then, if he has a charter the next afternoon, why pull it?  We were very busy over Christmas and the boat was in the water for 10 days.  The hull was a very dark iced tea color.  Though we cleaned it up - I think I want to bottom paint it.  My 290 SDX is on my lift behind the house and I could moor the 240.  There’s room - I just didn’t want to keep it in the water.  It makes more sense as I’ve got tools, an ice machine, cleaning chemicals, etc here at the house - plus save the monthly rack fee.  Any advice on bottom paint - pro or con?  It’s salt water so stuff sticks quick.

[fwebster]

We are in NW Florida and in the water 365 days /year. I have used both Interlux and SeaHawk ablative bottom paints. Both are good but we get better results with SeaHawk CuKote. The Interlux ablatives are more viscous and tend to leave a rougher surface when rolled on. SeaHawk is much smoother and we acturally picked up some speed just by changing paint. I get about 4 years out of a full bottom job with SeaHawk, but that is with annual haul outs to clean and repaint the hardware and touch up the hull and waterline.

Your outdrive cannot be painted with Cukote becaue it is a high copper paint and you will get dissimilar metal corrosion unless you use a paint specificly formulated for outdrives.

Finally, if you have a Bravo lll oudrive, I would abandon the idea of keeping the boat in salt water. There is so much stainless steel on the B-lll that it is almost impossible to avoid galvanci action beterrn the aluminum gear case and the props, shafts, etc . The area that tends t obe affected first is the seal carrier or housing located behind the props where you cannot see it. Wwhen corrosion begins it runs areounbf the face of the housing and behind the seal and when that happens, the lower ubnit gets saltwater in it and there is no fix other than to replace the outdrive.