Brightsides in Wet Locations

Five years ago I painted the cockpit of my non-CLC fiberglass sailboat with Brightsides.  At the time I was warned by a member of the Cape Dory board that Brightsides did not do well in in a wet environment. Despite the warning, I went ahead, filling the stress cracks, priming 2x and finishing with 2 coats of Brightsides with the non-skid additive on the horizontal surfaces - all following the application instructions in regard to sanding and solvent wipes.  

It looked great upon application and for the first year or so.  Sometime around the second year I began to see blistering in the areas that are persistently wet.  Although the cockpit of my boat drains to a small bilge, there is always some water up forward.  After five years, the blistering was pretty bad and I decided to repaint with Kiwi Grip, which I applied to only the horizontal surfaces.  While we will see how this stands up, I was impressed with the ease of application and initial appearance of the Kiwi Grip.  It is also a near perfect match to the Hatteras White (4208) that is in the rest of cockpit.

Now for the CLC connection.  My Peeler which also lives in the water was also finished with Brightsides.  When painting the bottom last week I noted the same small blisters forming on the waterline, which is ~1" above the water.  Based on these two data points, I would suggest that while Brightsides may be fine for a dry sailed boat, there has to be a better choice for a surface that is persistently wet.

Jeff


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