Outboard Motor Paint

[fishfun83]

I keep my boat in the water in South Florida. Presently, I am prepping the bottom of my boat for painting and have a question about the unprotected portion of my 80hp Yamaha outboard motor that is submerged in the water. Although not a large area, about 6 inches of the motor mount stays submerged and when I pulled the boat, that area had barnacles attached to the aluminum and hydraulic lines. Should this part of the motor be painted with bottom paint or some other type of paint?

[GulfCoastMech]

Trilux 33 by Interlux is good for aluminum. You have to read the directions on what your using to see if it's compatible with aluminum. I'm in Florida as well and nothing you do will last past a hot summer here. Have to haul out or snorkel around with a scraper.

[DennisG01]

As mentioned, just make sure the antifouling paint you're using is suitable for underwater metal - otherwise you will cause corrosion since many AF paints have metals in them. If you use a paint like Pettit Hydrocoat Eco, you can use that on both the hull and the motor.

The best solution? Is not to take any of our advice. Look around your marina - find relatively similar setups as yours where the owner has had positive results over at least a few years... and just copy them. Reason being, sometimes certain AF paints work better in some areas than others.

[fishfun83]

I went to the marina yesterday evening to take a look at that other boats had done but came to no conclusion. It was not obvious the parts of the motors in the water were painted. I did purchase a can of Trilux 33 as GulfCoastMech recommended so I will spray that on when it arrives.

[99yam40]

you could put a jack plate on and raise the motor up out of the water when moored

[DennisG01]

I went to the marina yesterday evening to take a look at that other boats had done but came to no conclusion. It was not obvious the parts of the motors in the water were painted. I did purchase a can of Trilux 33 as GulfCoastMech recommended so I will spray that on when it arrives.

Are you saying that other boats had brackets that were unpainted and didn't have any growth, while yours is unpainted and does get growth? Kinda weird?

But it certainly can't hurt to put the paint on there. Any (proper) AF paint is going to be better than none - and that 33 stuff is good stuff. So even if it's not the "best" for your area, it'll be pretty darn close to it. FYI... the brush on 33 works/lasts longer than the spray on.

Did you check the type of hull paint you currently use to see if it's compatible? Just because it's easier to have only one paint to apply to everything. But, that's a minor point.