On one of the forums that I read, there is someone attempting to sell a center console that has bottom paint. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but its a smaller boat, a boat that would be normally kept on a lift or on a trailer. The general attitude is that the bottom paint really doesn't look good when its seen out of the water.
Someone suggested just having it removed, seems simple enough, but there's two possible risks with that. Number one, the bottom paint could be on there to help cover up something wrong with the hull. If you were dealing with someone who is just trying to sell the boat with what ever it takes, he generally wouldn't want to tell the new buyer, because who would want to buy something with a problem (unless its a project). Another big point to think about when considering removing bottom paint completely is the prep work that went into the hull before the paint went on. Bottom paint is very thick and often requires hours of sanding on the hull to create a surface that it will bond to. Most of the time, this sanding is so harsh that they gel coat may be completely removed. Gel coat is VERY expensive to reapply and can be next to impossible to match 100% on an older boat.
When buying a new boat, weigh the one time cost of a lift and the cost of replacing bottom paint ever couple of years. Generally, the cost of the lift will be cheaper. Let's face it, if you aren't going to keep up with the bottom paint, there is really no reason to do it the first time.
Sometimes though there is not really an option to buy a lift. One of the replies on the post was from someone who bought a house on a small canal in Florida, a canal not wide enough to install a lift. He weighed the options and opted to apply bottom paint and decided not to let it bother him. After all, he did buy the house with the intention of keeping his boat in the water.
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