No dry storage in my area, any one leave there vipers in the water?

[shadowboxer]

We are considering a ditching our keel boat for a Viper for our weekly evening race series, unfortunatly there is no dry storage for boats in the race area. Does any one put bottom paint on thier Viper and leave it in the water for the season?

The other option would be to haul it home each week and rig launch before the race. Not sure how much of a pain that would be.

[Peter Beardsley]

I believe there's at least one guy in Maine who has bottom paint on his Viper and keeps it on a mooring.  We've never seen him at a one design regatta, but I've heard this boat exists.  Maybe some other Viperers know of others. 

[George Gluecksmann]

I dont know of any Viper, but I know of a couple of Melges 24 that were kept in the water in the Dominican Republic, VC offshore painted and seemed to be doing well. They were less competitive than the dry stored counterparts, the one thing that was clear is that they were harder to sell and sold for quite less than a dry stored ones

[emc_ret]

If you left the boat in the water,  is it in a slip or on a mooring?  If it is in a slip you might be able to buy or build a float or hoist which would get the boat above the water.  I have sailed on a 25' sport boat kept in a slip on a hydro hoist.  At full raise,  only the keel bulb and tip of the rudder are in the water.  No bottom paint required.

A couple of sailors at our club have towed boats from off site for week night racing.  Somewhere on the Viper web site it says 30 minutes trailer to water which seems pretty optimistic but with practice you might get close to that.

[Justin Scott]

I'm currently an offsite Viperer until my dry sailing membership comes through.

I drop mast and leave shrouds in place with a piece of shock cord around the rigging. 18 1/2 turns each side for the uppers, and leave the lowers alone. No bottom cover because home is close. With both crew helping me, I throw the mast up in approx. same time as the dry sailors take to take their cover off.

I have my gnav control line pre set so I just hook the line to a loop hanging from the boom and the spin halyard has a mouse in place. Mainsheet and boom is lying in the boat all rigged.

Repacking the spin each time and running spin sheet is PITA. but its probably good for the sail.

Each time, I find a way to whittle another couple of minutes off.  Frankly the thing I like least is having to tow the trailer each way and have it sitting in my driveway during the week.

[Luke Porter]

I drysail my boat but tow it to a couple of local regattas. On my own I can drop the mast, tow the boat 20 mins, raise the mast, launch the boat and have it on a slip in 1.5 hours (complete with the mandatory boatyard socializing). I leave the shrouds on the mast, the spin in the sock and the retrieval end of the spin halyard in place, just untie the top of the spin halyard. I'd say it takes about 10-15 mins to stand and tune the mast on my own. It's certainly do-able, just not as easy as merely rolling under the crane :)

Luke.

[Drew Harper]

We are considering a ditching our keel boat for a Viper for our weekly evening race series, unfortunatly there is no dry storage for boats in the race area. Does any one put bottom paint on thier Viper and leave it in the water for the season?

The other option would be to haul it home each week and rig launch before the race. Not sure how much of a pain that would be.

You in salt or fresh water?  Key thing is you'll have to barrier coat the bottom before painting it. It'll kill the resale value unless you strip it before selling. Frankly, the bottom is tiny and you could do this easy. The boat WILL be slower, but the convenience is likely to far overshadow the slight speed drop.

I'd take a hard look at Baltoplate. You can burnish it very bright (smooth) and it's relatively good for most salt environments. Used that on my U24, Santa Cruz 27 with much success. You MUST barrier coat the boat first though. Figure you'll be adding about 80lbs in paint and water absorption

[Bob Bowditch]

I'm the guy in Maine (Boothbay Harbor) who keeps my Viper on a mooring. As Drew says, the plus is convenience. It's right in front of my cottage on the coast and there are no easy ways to dry sail it. I've assumed the salt water paint adds weight and slows the boat some but, since I don't (yet) race against other Vipers, I race PHRF and don't worry about it. I've just had Paul Z repair some damage to the keel box and he said that being on the mooring might have contributed to the problem. I'm considering doing the Viper circuit next year and if I do I'll bite the bullet, put in a ramp or hoist of some kind and get the paint off. In the meantime, I'm underway in ten minutes. Maybe the boat is a little slower but I'm out sailing more.

[Peter Beardsley]

Bob,

That is fantastic to hear that you might get out there for some regattas in 2014 -- we'd love to see it happen, with or without bottom paint!  You could always go with the home-built hoist approach -- you wouldn't be the first Viperer to have made it happen: http://www.viper640.org/component/content/article/14-news/346-living-the-dream-part-1 -- though a ramp works well too. 

[Drew Harper]

If you strip the bottom...use this.

http://www.dumondchemicals.com/home-peel-away-marinesafety-removers.html

[Bob Bowditch]

Thanks, Drew, I'll tell my yard to use it. I assume this takes it down to the shell. What should be done next to return it to dry sailing condition (sanding, type of paint etc.)?

[Drew Harper]

There's a fiberglass wash that they'll use, then rubout with 3m finishing compound, then wax with carunuba.

You should know that after this process you'll need to keep wax on the hull pretty constantly. The process of stripping paint opens the porosity of the gelcoat up so you need to keep it sealed with wax. It's no biggie though...just makes the boat faster :-)))

[Jeff Jones]

Waxing your hull makes the boat faster? 

Seems like a good opportunity for a technical debate.

There's a fiberglass wash that they'll use, then rubout with 3m finishing compound, then wax with carunuba.

You should know that after this process you'll need to keep wax on the hull pretty constantly. The process of stripping paint opens the porosity of the gelcoat up so you need to keep it sealed with wax. It's no biggie though...just makes the boat faster :-)))

[Drew Harper]

Waxing your hull makes the boat faster? 

Seems like a good opportunity for a technical debate.

There's a fiberglass wash that they'll use, then rubout with 3m finishing compound, then wax with carunuba.

You should know that after this process you'll need to keep wax on the hull pretty constantly. The process of stripping paint opens the porosity of the gelcoat up so you need to keep it sealed with wax. It's no biggie though...just makes the boat faster :-)))

Have at it boy...

[Jeff Jones]

Ok

You said " .....you need to keep it sealed with wax. It's no biggie though...just makes the boat faster :-)))"

Putting wax on your hull will not help speed, it will hurt it.  A special polish like hullcoat might be different.   

Do I understand you right??  boy...?

Waxing your hull makes the boat faster? 

Seems like a good opportunity for a technical debate.

There's a fiberglass wash that they'll use, then rubout with 3m finishing compound, then wax with carunuba.

You should know that after this process you'll need to keep wax on the hull pretty constantly. The process of stripping paint opens the porosity of the gelcoat up so you need to keep it sealed with wax. It's no biggie though...just makes the boat faster :-)))

Have at it boy...