I have a diver who scrubs and inspects the hull of Midnight Run every month.

He noted that there was paint peeling away from the keel, that had apparently been there for months (prior to my purchase). He even sent me pictures that proved the damage had been there for at least 6 months!

When I purchased Midnight Run, I made the decision not to have a surveyor inspect her prior to purchase. For this size and value of boat, it just wasn’t worth it. Certainly for a bigger, more expensive boat, you should have a survey done to uncover issues like this (or worse).

I decided to have Midnight Run hauled out for inspection and repair.

Was the paint peeling because of:

1) Collision with something underwater?

2) Blistering or electrolysis of some sort?

3) Poor paint prep on a previous bottom paint job?

4) Other?

After the haul-out and inspection, the boat yard concluded it was #3. Poor paint prep.

They scraped away quite a bit of paint from the keel, and then re-prepped and re-painted the keel with the same bottom paint (hard not ablative, for any sailors out there). The bottom had just been repainted in 2109, so I decided to save a bit of money and limit the re-painting to the keel. At some point in 2021, I’ll re-do the entire bottom, as per a normal 2-year maintenance schedule.

I was relieved to know that the cause was unlikely #1 or #2 (or #4).