Epoxy (floor) paint for a boat?

If people are telling you that it's gel coat right out of the mold and there is no problem with abrasion, then they are lying, or you are misunderstanding what's going on.

Gel coat has adequate abrasion resistance, but beaching repeatedly wears it away, frequency and type of beach can speed up the abrasion rapidly. All sorts of products and coatings are marketed to help prevent the damage.

 

Yeah, I considered something like this, but in the end I think any added protection strips would slow the boat down far more than any scratches would...

Well if they are lying, then what is the coating on these boats? I assumed it is gelcoat from this forum thread, and I have inspected these boats many times - none of them had any scratches, or very very minor ones, even though I observed them being dragged over gravel, rocks and sometimes much worse.

 

Maybe they are new or almost new hulls . Maybe post cured gelcoat quality is better. I will have similar problem like you and probably will use polyurethane .What kind ? Some experiments need to be done .

 

I've been in the resin and gel coat industry for over 30 years doing tech service, training, and product development, plus another 30 as a fabricator, I know what gel coat is and what it can do. Your response indicates you don't understand what you are looking at and it is leading you to incorrect conclusions. Gel coat when drug across a beach will scratch and wear away, the lighter the boat and less aggressive the surface, the longer it will last though.

I've also lived on the water most of my life using small boats like these. Gel coat wearing off is a constant focus of attention and maintenance depending on the exact boat and the type of beach in front of the house.

It should be easy enough to ask someone what the coating is on their hull.

 

I am not arguing with you, I could be wrong, like I said, I based my assumptions based on what others told here. I am certainly not knowledgeable enough to tell if it's gelcoat or something else. I only observed that these boats were abused really bad, and yet most retained almost completely scratch-less bottoms. And that's not just looking at it, but I often inspected them with fingernail, trying to feel for any scratches (because I couldn't believe my eyes), and like I said, there were almost none. At least 10x less than on my boat, which endures the same abuse as any other. So if it's not gelcoat, then it must be something else. I did ask around quite a lot, but most sailors didn't know, since they bought these boats as they were and never bothered with any repairs. I know it might sound far-fetched in a forum where pretty much everyone messes around with boats at work or in their workshops, but most sailors in my country are not nearly as serious, they tend to buy, sail, and replace when broken rather than attempt any repairs themselves. A few guys that did answer said it's gelcoat, but they didn't sound too convinced, I'm more inclined to believe you due to your experience.

The boats that I observed having these extremely durable bottoms were Laser (not sure which year), Laser 2000, RS Feva, 420 and 470, one Contender, a few others I don't remember right now. We also have a Flying Dutchman - the owner of that one keeps repairing it every season due to scratches, he said uses 2k polyurethane paint and it isn't holding up nowhere near as good as these other boats I mentioned. Perhaps you would know what is the coating on these models that makes them so ridiculously resistant to being abused like I described earlier... I don't want to presume, just saying what I observed. Most of these boats come out scratchless after such collisions and dragging on the rocks that would strip my boat's bottom down to bare wood.

 

There are many technical products , that need to be tested for use in a boats. Boats still in different environments, they spend time on trailers or in salt water. Scratch protection, in your case is not as hard as a rocky river jetboat or low temp ocean ice condition. My idea is to buy and test. They are not the cheapest products...