Sea Hawk certified

Bottom paint picked for the water your boat actually sits in

Name: Custom Marine Finishes
Address: 138 Bluffton Rd (Hwy 46), Bluffton, SC, 29910, US
Telephone: (843) 304-2798

A certified Sea Hawk Bottom Paint Center on Bluffton Road. The antifouling is chosen for where the boat lives and how it is stored, from $45 per foot.

Call (843) 304-2798 Request an inspection

What fouling and flaking paint do below the waterline

Bottom paint is the coat nobody sees until it fails. In Lowcountry brackish water, growth builds quickly on a hull that has lost its protection, and old antifouling that has gone chalky or started to flake leaves bare patches where fouling takes hold first. Blisters under the waterline are the other warning sign, because they mean water has found a way into the coating beneath.

Peter Denigris had Paul bottom paint his pontoon boat and called the result remarkable. A reviewer posting as Fishing Focus had a 23 foot boat waxed and bottom painted here. Different hulls, different storage, but the same first question: what has this boat been sitting in, and what is already on it?

How the hull is prepped, painted and the boot line cut

Custom Marine Finishes is a certified Sea Hawk Bottom Paint Center, and the paint is chosen by location, water conditions and storage. A boat that stays in the water all season, one that comes out seasonally and one that lives on a trailer do not get the same answer. Paul asks where the boat lives first, then looks at the hull.

How much prep a hull needs depends on its condition and on the coatings already on it, which is why the work starts with an inspection and a defined scope instead of a flat quote. Once the paint is on, the boot line is taped and cut, the straight edge where bottom paint meets topsides. The catamaran photo on this page shows that tape line over fresh paint.

Price per foot, pick-up from Old Joy Landing and the wait for a slot

Bottom painting starts at $45 per foot. The final price depends on hull condition, existing coatings, prep, repairs and the paint selected, so a hull with sound old paint is a different job from one that needs stripping back and repair first. Paul gives a fixed price after the evaluation, and Karen Ryan wrote that what he quoted was what he charged.

Free pick-up and delivery from Old Joy Landing in Bluffton is offered for bottom painting. Kenny Blackwood had his bottom paint project finished earlier than expected and right on budget. Book early: the Fishing Focus review says they are very busy and you need to be patient to get an appointment, and that it is worth the wait.

Catamaran hulls on stands in the tent, the boot line taped over fresh bottom paint

“Custom Marine Finishes did a remarkable job bottom painting my pontoon boat.” Peter Denigris, Google review

Paint schedule

Where does the boat live between trips

In the water: The boat stays afloat in Lowcountry brackish water. The paint is chosen for a hull that is never out of the water, so the coat has to keep working through the whole season.
Seasonal: The boat is launched for part of the year and hauled for the rest. The paint is chosen for that cycle of splash and haul-out rather than for a single long soak.
Trailered: The boat lives on a trailer and goes in for trips. The paint is chosen for a hull that dries out between launches and still has to be clean when it floats.

The bottom is the last coat of a long schedule. Above the boot line, topsides are a separate job covered under boat painting, and a hull coming out of the water is a good moment for detailing. The gallery shows boats that have been through the bay.