Not sure if this helps, but when I first bought my Z246 (in UK) she was already painted but in need of rework as patchy. I had a permanent marina berth so kept her in the water for a couple of months until winter then hauled her out and spent about a month of weekends stripping her right back to the gelcoat.
Two reasons I decided to go through that, first that the previous owner had gone way too high up the sides of the hull with the paint in my opinion and I wanted to try and get as close to the waterline as possible. Second that it would give me a chance to know if the antifoul was covering any hull damage.
It was a nasty, cold (where I was anyway) and messy job. But solved both problems. I used a base coat and then 3-4 top coats of hard, scrubbing antifoul (anything else will just fall off at Mariah speeds!) after a bit of research I went for International's Interspeed Ultra.
Was pleased with the finish, couldn't really see the antifoul in the end and as I keep her in the water, it was a necessity as the growth would have been bad. Didn't do anything at all to that for 3 seasons except touch up the strip around the waterline when she came out for her annual service.
Last couple of years she has been on a trailer since I moved out to Dubai, this stuff has been tough enough to launch, recover and hose down without breaking up. I'm just this weekend re-fouling (top coat only) as I've found a permanent berth again.
Planning to use Jotun's Penguin Performance as I can't get hold of the Interspeed very easily here, but as all the scrubbing ones are compatible the only preparation i'm having to do is wash down and a very light manual sand just to remove the used layer and give it something to key to, and it's really not that much work.
The only thing I would say is that doing this on a trailer is pretty fiddly and means you cant get to the final strip on the very bottom of the hull. The best way (which I did last time) is to have the maria prop her on blocks and then you can reach everything and just get them to move her slightly so that you can do the bits under the blocks.
indykoch - might be worth keeping in mind that I recovered the parts above the waterline without new gelcoat, fine sanding will get it back, but just depends how much labour costs are compare to the re-gel.
Here are some pictures of the original work for reference:
http://www.mariahownersclub.com/gall...dex.php?n=2014
http://www.mariahownersclub.com/gall...dex.php?n=2019
By the way, not sure what types of growth you get in your areas, but the killer ones here and back home are the barnacles, those things never come off and will tear skin to shreads trying to remove them. I did a great job of the hull but didn't protect the leg enough and those things have now been dead for 3 years yet I still cant get some of them off!!
A friend of mine with a Talari decided not to foul and the barnacles on the hull actually stopped him getting on the plane! - plus they blocked the intake and caused him to overheat - nasty little things, so be warned!!
Anyway, take a look at the pictures and see if you think it spoils the looks, personally I wouldn't even think of leaving her in the water without some serious antifoul now, takes a bit of time to do at the start but no work for 2-3 seasons is a fair return.
Steve.
White Anti-Fouling Bottom Paint
