What company is painting your cabo and where in FL? I have 2000 45. I have it in Cape Cod and think the best painting option might be to run it to FL for a winter and have it done there. I'm guessing a 45 express would be much cheaper than the flybridge. Thanks
Bill, The name of the company is Steadfast Marine, Inc. 1449 SE Huffman Rd., Port St. Lucie, FL 34952 772-398-1500 is the office number. Owner is Bruce Harris and his wife runs the office. He has been excellent to work with, no surprises or extra charges and the job is right on time. He is actually finishing a couple of days early. His crew is very dependable. I thoroughly checked out Bruce and the company before using him. All references couldn't say enough good things. I would certainly think the express would be less although it is 2 ft longer. Remember they removed all the gelcoat from rubrail up, 2 different primers, sand and then paint. If your gelcoat is not crazed they would probably only need to sand well. The tent was about 6k out of the total price. He will work out of any boatyard but really prefers Ways Boatyard in Palm Beach because its a very clean yard. Its 45 minutes from his office. He is originally from Antiqua and sometimes a little hard to understand with his accent. Skip
With Awlcraft you can match and touch up spots without having to paint the whole area such as transom, side, etc. With Awlgrip you have to paint the whole transom, side, etc if you have chip or damage of some type.
I prefer Awlgrip on the rubrail up and Awlcraft on the hull. The chances of damaging paint on the rubrail up is very small on a boat your size, so touch ups aren't as much a worry and it's a bit harder than awlcraft.
Understand. My painter recommended I stay with Awlcraft because it is so durable. From fishing I get a fair amount of dropped weights, fishing rods banging, etc so hopefully this works out pretty good.
Even though he's an expert applicator Bruce Harris / Steadfast Marine knows better than to chance applying two entirely different paint systems in close proximity and not have the outcome be a two tone colored boat as its very difficult to color match the systems. 99% of yacht refinishing companies in south Florida will steer customers to Awlcraft 2000 due to its ease of application in our less than perfect climate (humidity ,dew point & temperature) & due to the lack of true environmentally controlled painting sheds (in lieu of tents) that reduce the chance of application problems. . As far as durability is concerned, Awlcraft's acrylic formulation has a very high DOI (distinction of image) and low Wa (wave length, orange peel measured by photometer ) but is considered to be a "soft paint" that will chip and scratch easily & has very poor abrasion resistance compared to the full long chain aliphatic urethanes like Alexseal or Awlgrip. Hybrid polyester acrylics like Quantum 99 will provide the DOI, low Wa , hardness & durability of the aliphatic urethanes but they have the forgiving abilities of blending and repair.
Maybe another time. Seems everyone has their preferences for various reasons. This was my best choice based on what I have seen around here on other sportfishing vessels. Couldn't be more happy with the results right now although time will tell.
You made the correct choice given the environment in which the system was applied. Even though your vessel was in a tent enclosure, how many weather days did the applicator have due to high humidity because of rain or dew point? The tent structure that Kiwi1 posted had environmental units installed in several locations to balance the inside of the tents application enviroment. European applicators are ahead of us here in So.Fl. As I've only found this inside balance being done at Rybovitch.
You'll be perfectly fine with Awlcraft on the entire boat. There is nothing wrong with the Awlcraft system. Everyone has their preferences and it depends on usage, application situation, etc. etc. It's also easier to have it match 100% as other's have mentioned. A lot of days people have a colored hull/white rub rail up, in that situation my preference would be Awlgrip rubrail up, Awlcraft on the hull, however I wouldn't complain if the painter prefered to use Awlcraft on the entire boat either.
Bill, The painting is completed. I have a few pictures of the finished boat but they are from inside the painting tent. If things go correctly I will pick up the boat on Monday and bring back home. Will post some pictures the following week. It looks terrific from everything that I have seen. Look forward to seeing it outside the tent. Bruce says it even looks better outside. Skip
Was wondering about the paint co at the old Daytona Boat Yard. I've seen some of that great work and wondered if you contacted them. .rc