Our Dinghy Nightmare - Part 2

--Blogpost written by Bob

As we left off on our last blogpost, we didn't know if our proposed bottom painting solution would work with copper particles from the old bottom paint trapped beneath our new complex primer system OR if our 3-month old dinghy was completely ruined.   We arranged our second meeting with the dealer armed with photographs of the entire mess and stated our case that they should replace the dinghy at no cost to us.  The dealer agreed and began making arrangements to pick up our 3-month old dinghy and begin preparing the new one!

Even though just after the fifth coat of Primocon underwater primer (and two
coats of zinc phosphate) the bottom was very smooth, additional
roughness showed up two days later.  I believe this was due
to the continuing reaction between the copper in the
bottom paint and the aluminum hull with the new
paint acting as an electrolyte.

Because of this nightmare, even though the mistake of applying a copper-based paint to aluminum will not happen again, we decided to change to a fiberglass-hulled rigid hull inflatable dinghy at this time.  The difference in weight and cost were insignificant and we have the peace of mind that if something happens far away from civilization, I can fix a fiberglass hull myself.

New Bottom Paint Scheme

The Petit paint rep was in the dealer's storefront following our meeting--we extended our visit to meet with him to review our bottom paint selection for our new (fiberglass-hulled) inflatable dinghy.  

We chose to have the fiberglass portion of the bottom coated with one coat of Petit Protect, a (gray) epoxy barrier coat. 

We will be applying one coat of Petit Protect epoxy barrier coat to the
fiberglass portion of the hull of our new dinghy

Then 2 coats of (red) Petit Ultimate Eco (which we had already purchased to use on our 3-month old dinghy) will be applied to the fiberglass and hypalon portions of the bottom.

We decided to use Petit's Ultima Eco on both the fiberglass hull and
the Hypalon tubes of our new rigid hull inflatable dinghy.

Summary

We believe our dinghy nightmare is now over.  Part 3 of this blogpost will cover the delivery of our new fiberglass-hulled rigid hull inflatable dinghy next week.  

This entire episode emphasizes the importance of buying from a reputable dealer, in this case Fawcett Boat Supplies in Annapolis.  Everyone makes a mistake here and there but not everyone stands behind their products like Fawcetts.

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