I bought a boat! 2 pack or not 2 pack...

[blackrose]

Jotamastic 87 is good stuff but has now been superseded by Jotamastic 90. 

 

I would sand down a test area of the surface with a medium grit paper and if this works and gets you back to a sound layer of epoxy (as well as providing a good key for new coats of paint), then I'd sand the whole boat, dust, spirit wipe with the same thinners used for the new epoxy and then get a few coats on there following the manufacturer's instructions.

[cuthound]

3 hours ago, JGL said:

@Dr Bob - thanks. I think you may have saved me from a silly mistake. I'll wait until the new year and go from there. Kind of amazes me that the yards in the business would be happy to take my cash, when presumably they know (or might at least have an inkling) that it isn't the most sensible route forward...

I think the plan is put her back in the water in her new home (The Lancaster Canal), wait until warmer weather, in the mean time try and find somebody who knows their way around the issues and come up with a sensible plan (the surveyor's advice to pressure wash and then put normal blacking on is starting to make more sense now too).

 

??

I'll hopefully get back to the boat with a rag and some thinners later.. let's see what happens.

 

This is bad advice. 

 

If you cover the 2 pack with normal blacking, future coats of 2 pack won't adhere properly, so the boat will have to be grit blasted back to the bare metal if you want to use 2 pack in the future. Very costly compared to preparing and then slapping on another couple of costs of 2 pack.

 

If the exisitng 2 pack is generally in good condition it is better to leave it for now and reblack using 2 pack in the future, when the weather is warmer.

[cuthound]

3 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

Coal tar epoxies are commoner than you think. In the 80's, 90's and 00's they were the 'go to' coating for BP for anything to do with water ie all splash zones, jetties tank bottom internals where water might be the bottom layer (crude tanks). They are disappearing now as coal tar is deemed unsafe but they were very very good coating with slightly more flexibility than standard epoxies. Not a clue how widespread their use was on the canals.

 

I would say its use is quite rare on the canals. In the 80's and 90's I dont think anyone used 2 pack blacking. I first became aware of its use on canal boats in the early 2000's, and even now the majority of new builds still use ordinary blacking.

 

I find this situation very strange as the new hull should be grit blasted before blacking whatever coating is used, so the additional cost of the 2 pack over ordinary blacking is tiny compared to tne cost of a new build boat.

[JGL]

4 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

This is bad advice. 

 

If you cover the 2 pack with normal blacking, future coats of 2 pack won't adhere properly, so the boat will have to be grit blasted back to the bare metal if you want to use 2 pack in the future. Very costly compared to preparing and then slapping on another couple of costs of 2 pack.

 

If the exisitng 2 pack is generally in good condition it is better to leave it for now and reblack using 2 pack in the future, when the weather is warmer.

@cuthound Yep - I understand. I think this is a call I need to make (and hopefully will find somebody with expertise to chat to about it between now and next year). It looks as if the base layer of epoxy, which is now 15 years old, was very good... and is still largely in tact. Subsequent layers haven't gone on very well though... his take was to just accept this, give it a really good pressure wash, and go back to bitumen blacking (to avoid the cost of gritblasting again). I would prefer to stick with epoxy (but only if the layer there is still good enough). 

Either way I'll be waiting until next year based on what you lot have suggested, and secondly I'll be looking for some advice to choose the right way forward.

Any suggestions of people on the Lancaster canal who know their way around these issues?

[WotEver]

3 minutes ago, JGL said:

Either way I'll be waiting until next year based on what you lot have suggested, and secondly I'll be looking for some advice to choose the right way forward.

Best not to wait until next year to book it, otherwise you’ll be looking at having it done the year after. 

[cuthound]

1 minute ago, WotEver said:

Best not to wait until next year to book it, otherwise you’ll be looking at having it done the year after. 

 

Good advice, I had to book my boatyard 15 months in advance to get a repaint and blacking scheduled for August (and I still havent got the boat back to its mooring courtesy of the winter stoppages ?.

[JGL]

3 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Best not to wait until next year to book it, otherwise you’ll be looking at having it done the year after. 

Thanks for the tip. I'll start finding somebody asap.