Victory 631 Bottom Paint

The bottom paint on Victory 631 has a unique coating called, Ceramcoat, which is a very hard ceramic finish which has no copper in it. The lack of copper makes it environmentally friendly and this coating lasts for a very long time as it can be cleaned a great number of times and not have to be re-applied. As a result, the long term maintenance cost for the bottom is significantly reduced. This boat’s coating was applied in 2003, and in that span of time, bottom paint with copper would have had to have been applied at least two to three times by now, at a cost of $735 per application, so we’ve saved possibly as much as $2,205.

However, while it is great that we have gone “Green”, the problem with this finish is that it has about a hundred pores per square inch and each pore acts as a root for marine growth so that in the summer, more frequent cleaning is suggested, to as much as twice a month. When clean, the bottom looks almost white, which is the color of the clean ceramic.

Recently, one of our newly checked out skippers took 631 and had no knowledge of the condition of the bottom. He had difficulty sailing this boat and found it to be sluggish and unresponsive when sailing with Jib only. After the boat was towed back to the docks, the bottom was examined and the color of the bottom had the color of a brown pair of shoes. When the lower part of the rudder was rubbed with a brush, about a half inch thick layer of growth was removed. This half inch thick growth appeared to be all over the boat and was probably a significant contributor to the boat being slow.

As a result of this finding, a discussion was held with the diver contracted to clean the bottoms of our boats and he said that he would personally “go clean 631 myself in a few days” and added that maybe he should be cleaning it twice a month. So, as a warning to other boaters, if 631's bottom does not look nearly white or completely white, you might think twice before taking it for a sail.

Alex Leondis