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I've read about hull waxes that help prevent marine life growth on hulls. The waxes create such a slippery finish that algae and marine creatures can't hold on to the gel coat. Has anyone tried using Rain-X on their hulls to create a surface that water (and algae and marine life) will not hold onto? I have bottom paint below the waterline but have hesitated to paint the sides of my boat because I don't like the looks of bottom paint on the vertical sides of Whalers.
Before you worry too much about critters attaching to the sides of your Whaler, worry about osmotic blisters. If the boat is kept in the water, any gelcoat below the waterline needs to have a barrier coat.
I have a top-quality bottom paint job below the chine and my boat doesn't stay in the water more than a couple months during the summer. Maybe it's not in the water long enough to get fouled.
I can't speak to the effectiveness of RainX or Desitin. My boat isn't bottom painted at all and I keep it in the water for two weeks at a time, at most. I don't know if you will have problems with blistering keeping it in for two months - I do know it's a mess and expensive to repair if it does occur.
Osmotic blistering isn't fouling - it's water getting under the gelcoat and creating little bubbles that lift the gelcoat away from the glass. My sister-in-law kept her 15 in the water too long, and the surface looks like it has chicken pox - really too bad.
If you don't like the look of bottom paint, you may wish to consider using a tintable bottom paint such as Pettit Vivid on the sides. Get it tinted to match your hull and it will hardly show. Of course you'll want to start with a barrier coat to prevent water intrusion - I hope your top-quality bottom paint job included that.
Thanks all. The amount of time during a season a boat is moored in the water seems to be a factor in the level of prevention or precautions an owner should take to protect the hull. My boat's in coastal Maine and is not in the salt water for long each year. Whereas if my boat was in Florida most of the year certain factors would require greater preventive care.
