Bottom Coat

TinBoats.net

Help Support TinBoats.net:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

1gr8bldr

Member
Joined
May 18, 2020
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
I'm looking to do something to the bottom of my hull to protect it. Its a 24 ft SeaArk with 150Yamaha Jet. It's 18 years old and probably wearing thin in places. Especially the corners. I don't know what all options are out there. I suspect, for protection that I should weld an angle along both edges before doing anything. I need recommendations for something like a spray in bed liner.
 
Are you just wanting a spray on coating? I've heard of some stuff called "gator glide" that's supposed to be pretty good but I have no experience with it. You could always have some UHMW put on it but that would add more weight.
 
Are you thinking that a coating will reinforce the hull skin? Or just protect it from corrosion?

A coating will do nothing to make it stronger.

How about a picture of your rig? Sounds like a cool boat!
 
Not really looking for anything to make it slick. But rather help protect it from gouging from when I do get on something. The river I fish is full of big rocks, shallow passages from one area to another. I'm thinking something like a spray in bed liner for a truck. But I'm asking because I just don't know what options there are.
 
You won't want to go the spray-on bed liner route. I know some drift boat guys that tried that when spray-on bed liners first came out and I've heard or a couple of jet boat guys that tried it as well and all regretted it immediately. The rough bed liner surface increases surface drag and sticks to every rock like Velcro. If you are wanting to do a coating, you need to look at the ones they make for airboats, like GatorGlide or similar. You can also add a UHMW bottom, which work great but will cost a fair bit and do add a bit of weight to the boat. Plus, UHMW is screwed into the hull, so you would have decide if you want something screwed into your boat on a large scale. You can also look at getting the bottom double-layered with aluminum. My boat mechanic used to weld double bottoms on jet boats when people wanted them, which made the boats heavier, but protected them well and fixed boats that had really worn out bottoms. If it were me, though, I would just run it like it is and if you put a hole in her, get it welded up. The added weight created by adding to the boat's bottom may be more detrimental than just leaving her as is.
 
I see, you want to reinforce the hull, not make it slicker, my mistake. There's going to be a weight penalty if you go with the UHMW and it's significant. Even a quarter inch would be a lot. Doubling up on the aluminum over the whole hull would also add lots of weight. If you can identify which spots are wearing the most, what I'd do is just reinforce those areas by making "patches" to go over those areas that tie into known good metal. That should solve your problem and keep the weight down. They will cause a little drag but it shouldn't be a big detriment.
 

Latest posts

Top