DIY Bottom Paint Job at Glades Boat Storage

Time for a bottom job, boat bottom that is! —

Because of limited time in our schedule, when we took delivery of Kismet, we did not address scheduling the boat’s bottom paint until our after arrival in Florida. A couple of weeks after our Florida launch, I made arrangements to have our new boat travel lifted, power washed, and set up on jack stands at the DIY Glades Boatyard on the Caloosahatchee River. A day’s cruise from the marina. I did the research for the proper bottom paint. We use our boat in both salt and fresh water and for trailering, so I needed paint to cover all those usages. We choose Seahawk Cukote.

La Belle is A Great Stop On The Caloosahatchee River
A couple of weeks after we settled into our slip at Legacy Harbour Marina, we headed west on the river, stopping at the La Belle town dock for one night. We arrived at Glades on a Wednesday, late morning, and had to be finished by Friday afternoon. Otherwise, we’d have to stay over until Monday as they don’t operate the travel lift on weekends.

   

After we secured the boat on stands, I went to work prepping the hull for the “job.” After tapping off the paint line, I started de-waxing the surface by applying acetone to the entire hull. I did this for better adhesion of the Cukote. Next up was to lightly sand the cleaned hull for more adhesive abilities, followed by another acetone wipe.

With the hull prepped, I started rolling the first coat of Cukote, brushing in the areas where a short-nap roller would not reach. I applied a second coat the next day along with tape removal and cleanup. The last of the details were to paint under the jack stand pads and keel supports after the team at Glades moved the stands and lifted the boat.

Two days of crawling around on my hands and knees was a sufficient amount of time to feel that this could be the last time I’ll attempt this job on my own. We were lucky to have excellent weather, beautiful, not windy, and cool enough to get the job done quickly. We were in and out according to our schedule. A real big thanks to the team at Glades Boatyard for delivering, as promised, on the haul-out, launch. We splashed in a timely and cost-effective manner.

  

In addition to their boatyard, they have a huge storage lot for boats.