Public Discussion Forum

FEATURED ARTICLE from professional boat builder magazine. If you don't get this magazine it is free and has all the latest boat building techniques. I found this very interesting.

https://www.proboat.com/2026/02/finsulate-new-skin-for-old-ceremony

Joe and Linda

401 Play

2009 Selene 55078

Very interesting Joe. We spent a lot of time looking at Silicon coatings this spring but as the article states, the unforgiving application and removal issues pushed us away.

This is very interesting for displacement boats and a viable option. Would be interesting to see in-water testing results.

When I was a teenager, a friend got a job selling a product that was going to change the world. It was a simple thing. An epoxy paint with a flocked on short fiber material that coated the wet paint and left a fuzzy appearance. It was going to be the thing that changed the world and my buddy got in on the ground floor. The Navy was going to put it on subs. It could be a bed liner. It had all kinds of applications. Most of which I’ve forgotten.

After spending the summer going broke trying to sell this miracle product he got a job delivering pizzas. Much more lucrative.

I know zero about the stuff he was selling, and the stuff in this article. But being “flocked” is what caught my eye. And the fuzzy finish. There are a lot of modern inventions that were actually developed decades ago and just finally caught on. The microwave was invented in 1945 but we got one in 1982 and my friends came over to see it because it was so cool.

Maybe this is one of them. Or maybe this is the latest round of this same technology that fails for reasons we don’t know.

Speaking of wild new bottom paints. Ran into this guy at FLIBS.

Keyslifemagazine.com/blowtorching-boats-aquaphobix/

Which one of my esteemed colleagues would like to take the plunge and have your next bottom job done with a flame thrower? I want to bring popcorn and a folding chair.

Dan and Bethany Moore

Blue Phoenix - 2008 Selene 59-17

Dan, I think your boat has the best name for the flame thrower application.

I have considered some bottom paint options for our 6047 in build and am feelin’ old school. Not going slippery, fuzzy nor flame. Just sayin’ “flock it” and staying with good old black ablative bottom paint. Worked for me for 25 years, so if it ain’t broke . . .

Jack

Jack Burgess, Shangri-La 6047

Bottom paint ..

At the yard we are doing micron csc or the Sea Hawk alternative. Both are really great. We do 3 coats normally starting red, then blue, then black. When scrubbing if you see blue it's time to book a haul out, if you see red it's past time.

The new silicone paints especially hemple slic one is frankly amazing.

But ..

Silicone paints and boat building do not go together..

So it's awesome for refit but a disaster for a new build yard. No paint job we ever did after this would be ok... Full of fish eyes and blemishes.

Thanks

Dylan

That would make us the Blackened Phoenix. Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. 😁

Dan and Bethany Moore

Blue Phoenix - 2008 Selene 59-17