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I have now bottom painted the virgin bottom of my 1988 Montauk. The boat is being sold to friends who will keep it in the water during the summer on Lopez Island, WA so it was not an option, it had to be done.
I really do not like the appearance of bottom paint on Whalers. Black is the best conventional color choice in my opinion but is quite a contrast and spoils the nice lines of the classic Whaler.

I decided I would pursue a color choice that could be accessible to almost anybody and choose Pettit Vivid anti-fouling bottom paint because it is the first bottom paint in some years to be offered in white which I thought might be a good base for custom tinting. It turned out to be quite a simple task.

I took a Benjamin Moore color fan-deck I have (I use Benjamin Moore paints almost exclusively in/on my buildings) and walked out to where my Revenge 25 was parked and held the color chips up against the hull. I conclude the closest color match within that fan deck was their "Clay Beige" (BM color # OC-11).

I bought a quart of latex wall paint and painted a large sample swatch on paper at home and let it dry. I then held the sample up against my Revenge to compare it with the Desert Tan. It was close but not quite perfect. I was also comparing flat latex sample to a shiny gel coat hull. I decided it would be close enough for my purposes.

I bought a gallon of Pettit Vivid in white after calling Pettit's customer service and asking if their product could be tinted using universal colorants to create an off-white from their white without affecting the properties of the paint. Customer Service assured me there would be no harm in tinting the paint with universal colorants.

So I took my gallon of white Vivid over to my local Benjamin Moore dealer and asked if they would please tint my gallon of white paint to "Clay Beige". As I suspected there was an immediate insistence from the counter help that they could not do that. I told them I would take responsibility if the paint did not turn out as planned and to please just pretend this was a gallon of Benjamin Moore base. "No." was the answer. When I persisted, the store manager was brought out. In no uncertain terms he told me they would not touch another manufacturer's product. (I actually agree with this stance on many practical and legal levels.)

Not to be dissuaded, I then asked them to sell me a gallon of oil base enamel tinted to "Clay Beige" but to omit the gallon of base and sell me only the tints. In the end we compromised. They sold me an empty quart paint can that happened to have the color formula of tints necessary for a gallon of alkyd white base. It cost less than $3 with tax.

This tint was intermixed with the gallon of white Pettit Vivid last week when the Montauk was bottom painted after receiving three coats of Interlux 2000E epoxy barrier coat. It came out quite well with the color only a little off. It may change as the boat sits in the salt water for a while but this "invisible bottom paint" should be pretty well camouflaged against the Desert Tan gel coat:

http://home.comcast.net/~tomwclark/De..._Paint.jpg

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Tom,
Nice negotiating. For old color blind folks like me, it looks pretty close.:D
Mike

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Tom,

Looks very good indeed. I also prefer an unpainted bottom and removed the bottom paint from my 25. I got tired of the peeling paint look when the boat was on the trailer. I believe the an unpainted hull actually makes the boat look bigger. Nice job on the 17. I'm sure some of the other members here will follow your lead. Thanks for sharing the results.

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Tom,

Nice job. Last year when I was in pursuit of Desert Tan Bottom Paint no local paint shops or big box hardware stores would sell me tints, add tints to my vivid white base, or even think about it. No matter who I talked to in the store from the manager to the desk clerk I got no where. Even when I tried letting the "Money do the talking". I actually happened upon my Desert Tan paint source by accident as he was the neighbor of a co -worker. Seeing how he manufactured the paint he was willing to try. I was very happy with the results even after a full season of use.

This year he is no longer manufacturing the paint as it was to much of a hassle with EPA and other red tape. He is however, using a white Sea Hawk anti fouling bottom paint base and still adding his own tints for custom colors. Also, since he is not manufacturing it any more he has focused on doing all kinds of truly custom colors. Much like house paints if you can give a sample color he is willing to match it for you in bottom paint. He has picked up a lot of business this year with individuals as well as large local boat yards because of it. Because of his volume increase and not having to manufacture it himself his prices just came down. What used to run around $150 is at about $100 a gallon just last week. At least someones prices are turning for the good in this economy.

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Looks excellent Tom. I will do mine like that one day.

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Tom, please be sure an post some pictures after it has sat in the water for the summer.