Lifting paint problem
Q
I am the proud owner of
the Wylo ll which featured in PBO in the recentish past. Last winter she was ashore at L’Aber Wrac’h and when I cleaned her off I noticed some patches of paint starting to flake.
I attended to the local issues with rust killer and coated these with two-pot paint before antifouling. This winter she has been on a mud-ish mooring for a couple of months prior to lift-out.
There are two issues: firstly the paint layers have separated from much of the underside of her broad keel and there is some fairly localised ‘activity’, especially in the vicinity of two anodes. These unbranded anodes were bought in the local fishermans’ Co-op. Could the anodes be at fault? Or mighty there be something in the rust killer which has reacted with the anodes?
Secondly, there is some gravel in areas of the river bed here, so it’s possible that settling down into this might have compromised the paint.
The two domestic batteries are near one area and the bow windlass battery is near another. Any advice gratefully received. Dave Holden, by email
Richard Jerram Replies:
There is a possibility the two pot paint was not compatible with the rust killer. You also have to consider whether the rust killer was suitable for below waterline use as some are not.
Possibly a more effective repair would have been to grind the area back to bright metal and apply the epoxy primer direct to the steel. This would make for a more secure system. I also notice there are some corrosive salts where the anodes have been. This could indicate some reaction between the hull and the anodes. As this is near to one of the batteries there may be a current leak but a marine electrician would be able to check for this quite easily. My advice is, therefore, to have this checked and to grind the area of detachment to bright metal and apply a minimum four to five coats of epoxy primer and then antifoul according to the paint manufacturer’s instructions.