Ken,

Actually the picture was taken in Glaucester April 2019, more than 7 years after it was painted! What was new in the pic was the bottom paint. The remarkable thing is that the paint is still shining after 8 years with minimal amount of maintenance. The weakness of the paint is when you scratch it, because it can not be buffed like the gelcoat. Up to a month ago, I had been lucky and had had NO scratches. Unfortunately that changed when we entered sailing to Curaçao with very little wind and with a overheating engine (actually I erroneously thought it was). As we approached the dock, one of the fenders came up and it caused a 3 feet scratch that I will have to repaired when I get to Cartagena. Well 9 years without scratches was not too bad considering that the first 8 years we were getting in and out of a marina in Boston every weekend, 6 months per year.

Jose
Ipanema SM2K 278