Patrick Levitzke is from Port Macquarie, Australia. He left in 2019 to begin yachting, and found his first job on a private 82-foot Horizon, cruising the U.S. East Coast, with just the captain. Currently, he’s a deckhand on a 210-foot private yacht and has plans to complete his 200-ton license this year.
With the hustle of a busy charter season, scrapes and nicks are inevitable. This step-by-step guide will help you touch up your yacht’s paint, keeping it sharp until the next yard period.
While it’s often best to leave painting to the pros for the best finish, there will be times when you need to handle touch-ups yourself. Modern yacht paint jobs are becoming increasingly complex and harder to replicate, making the ability to perform minor repairs a valuable skill set on board. Ideally, touch-ups should focus on minor scrapes and chips, helping you maintain your yacht’s appearance until the next full paint job. Generally, these repairs should be no larger than a credit card; anything bigger will require more effort to achieve proper blending and color matching.
As with many jobs on board, 90 percent is preparation. So first, consult a product data or technical data sheet specific to the paint manufacturer. If you don’t have one handy, you should be able to find a PDF online — just ensure you have the correct color code or name associated with the yacht to reference. This document will explain how to prepare the paint, in what ratios, and how best to apply it. There will be a different process for the fairing compound, the base coat, and the topcoat. Hopefully, you can get away with just applying a fresh topcoat layer to touch-ups; however, for the purpose of instruction, we’ll assume it’s a deeper repair and build from the fairing layer up.
Additionally, seasoned varnishers will recognize much of the same practices that apply to painting. Painting or varnishing in windy conditions will almost always lead to bubbling and dust specks ruining the finish. Likewise, painting in a dusty shipyard or close to highways will lead to bubbling from air particles landing on paint. When possible, it’s best practice to tent off or enclose areas you’d like to paint. It also pays to check the weather, as high heat, direct sunlight, and precipitation will all lead to an unhappy final product.
1. Clean the area to remove grit, grease, or dirt, and remove any loose or flaking paint with a scraper.
2. Tape off the area you want to work in and begin sanding with medium/fine grit to ensure good adhesion and shape for the new fairing compound. Consult your data sheet for preparing the fairing compound, as most will require some kind of curing time after mixing the resin with a hardener.
3. Clean the area with alcohol or a similar solvent to remove residual sanding dust, and apply the fairing with a putty knife or scraper to match the adjacent contouring. This is usually the hardest part, and for first-timers, don’t worry, it’ll take a few goes to get the shape right. Once fully cured, sand back and repeat these steps as necessary.
4. Now, we move on to the base and topcoat. The paint layering for most yachts is fairing, primer, base coat, and topcoat. Each layer will have specific mixing arrangements and drying times, found in the data sheet of your particular paint color code and brand. It can be time-consuming, yet flexible to do in between other jobs, so plan accordingly. Remember, windy, dusty conditions will almost certainly ruin a paint job, with dust and particles settling in the fresh paint. Tent and prepare if the touch-up calls for it.
5. Before you begin sanding to match the fairing with the surrounding shape, first tape the perimeter of the repair area to limit the surface that you’re sanding. Blue masking tape is fine, although less adhesive painter-friendly tape is often better on the paint. As always, avoid leaving tape on paint in direct sunlight, or any adhesive for that matter. You’ll be repeating the taping process for each coat applied, with a light sand between each coat with a fine grit (220 to 320). Shaping the fairing may take a few tries to get right, especially if working in tricky contouring. If necessary, reapply fairing as needed until adequate shaping is achieved.
6. Next up is the primer to apply onto the fairing. Primer is needed for additional paint layers to adhere to, as they won’t adhere well by themselves, and will also “seal” the fairing compound. Primer is okay for a single coat, sometimes two.
7. The base coats provide correct coloring and blending, applied in one to three coats. For application, using a brush or roller is fine for smaller areas; however, you’ll get a better finish with a spray application. If spraying, avoid overspray at all costs and tent or cover as necessary. As with all painting, it’s best practice to apply many thin layers rather than one or two thick layers. The base coat is the first layer of the visible finish and is needed to provide a smooth surface to which the topcoats will be applied.
8. Our topcoat is the final aesthetic look that provides UV protection, durability, and the glossy finish, with two to three topcoats being ideal. A uniform topcoat will depend on all layers underneath it, and when applying topcoat, move the taped area fractionally further out to blend it with the surrounding area, as you sand between coats.
It’s easy to get caught up in the complexity of painting, which is why I’d much rather leave it to the experts. Touch-ups are only meant to get you through until the next full-vessel paint job. It’s extremely difficult to get them flawless. But at the end of the day, it’ll likely be better than the damage in the first place, and a bigger skill set means better salary. Happy painting!