Super Slick Coating on Bottom of Small C-Dory ?

J

JohnnyRambles

New member
Curious to know if anyone here has used any of the slick bottom coatings on a C-dory? Specifically on the smaller models. I've used products like this before (Gatorglide), but it's always been on small fiberglass canoes and flat bottom aluminum boats. I have plans to buy 16ft Angler model in near future and will be using it in some fairly non-traditional ways. Many times having to beach it, or even pull it short distances over soft bottoms at low tide so the coating would be to protect it and make movement a bit easier.

Has anyone here done this? Or beached/pulled one of the 16ft C-Dory models any distance while out of the water? I hope that with the flat bottom it may be a possibility.
 
Never tried one of those coatings, but the 16 with a motor, fuel etc will be up in the 1500 to 1700# range give or take. That would be a lot of weight to drag thru any surface which is at all cohesive.

I have beached RIB's many times and in that case put on sacrificial extra fiberglass on the "V" of the boat and keel. A season in AK beaching the boat 2 to 3X daily would wear two layers of mat off. I have seen Hobie and other beach cats, which are far lighter than the C Dory have the hulls worn thru from beachings...

Air boats have a lot of HP, and run over mud and grass etc. The Mud boats have the specialized motors which are not dependent on water cooling to push them thru the mud...

It might be an interesting experiment. But having a boat that weights about the same, and about the same length even in a few inches of water fully grounded, I tore a Achilles tendon trying to move it--and it eventually took a whole beach volleyball team to get the boat moving....! :oops:
 
When I had a aluminum drift boat I used a hard slick epoxy paint. Worked really well. Alum grabs rocks and holds on. With this epoxy I would just slide right over the rocks even better then a glass bottom drift boat. Also slide off trailer better. After a season there was hardly a mark on it and when you drift fish you have to slide over a lot of rocks or all sizes. Big boulders to gravel
 
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