Two summers ago I built the Nutmeg, and enjoyed it all last summer, sailing on lakes in the southern tier of NY State. I built it according to plan, for the most part, including NOT epoxying the entire hull. Instead, I used a coat of primer/sealer, and then a couple of coats of high quality exterior paint. The idea was to create a boat that would be dry-stored... and not be sitting in water for more than 1/2 a day at a time. This has met my needs perfectly until now.
However, my wife and I are now in the process of buying a cottage on one of the lakes in the area (great sailing and fishing possibilities!) and quite honestly, I am now thinking I'd like to be able to leave her (I mean the boat, though my wife intends to do a lot of swimming too) in the water for days at a time. With this goal in mind, I have a question:
Can I put a couple of layers of epoxy over the paint on the hull of my wooden boat and expect it to be truly water proof and last? Is there some kind of prep work (other than simply making sure it is very clean) that I could do to improve the chances of the epoxy doing the right job? Will I need to strip most of the paint off and sand it thoroughly again to create a surface that will accept the epoxy? Or, am I going to need to go back to the drawing board and build another boat that can stay in the water?
Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Neither epoxy nor anything else keeps water out of wood immersed in water. Save your time and money and just put her in. That said, epoxying exposed plywood edges is very helpful in preventing rot-afloat or ashore.
