I bottom painted the 222 blue this time, no pics yet . . .

[Ben87]

. . . .but tommorow I will take a few pictures.  The boat does look better on the trailer with the bottom painted blue.  My Dad had been buying the cheapest West Marine bottom paint for years, the BottomShield and there are many layers on it and I sanded it all as smooth as I could and put on the Sea Bowld Ablative 57 in blue and it looks darned good now as the paint matches the darker blue striping on the boat.  I will post pictures tommorow.  

This Friday night my Dad and I will be flying down to Ft Lauderdale to check out the new Dusky before we drive down, I'm excited to say the least but I'm still making sure the 222 is in fine shape for this upcoming season as I'm still the one taking care of her even though I might not be using her all that much.

[RickK]

Too bad you couldn't have planned it a little differently - flew into where the boat is being made a day earlier, then drive the rental car to St. Pete, caught the get-together and then flew back out of Tampa.

Advice is free of course  

[JimCt]

Sanding bottom paint ain't a happy job but when it's done and painted you have something nice to show for it.  Good thing about ablative is it doesn't build up like the hard copper paints.

[Ben87]

I forgot to get a picture this morning, I will when I get home today.  While the bottom was anything but paint-free, at least I smoothed it out as best I could and the new blue does look good, much better than red.  

I definitely wanted a multi-season paint as I don't want to be painting all the time so I'm sure the Ablative 56 will do its job and I won't have to paint next season and hopefully longer than that.  I have some paint left in the can so maybe after work today or tommorow I'll use the rest up to put another coat on the waterline and on the places where the water usually runs when on plane.