Lets talk econo paints, XO Rust from Ace Hardware.

[Oyster]

I thought this maybe of interest for some this time of year. I freshened up my decks yesterday with 8.99 a quart paint. I cannot tell the difference from the high dollar enamels in paints. You do need to add one of those packs of midlew inhibitors that also sold at the same general area of the paints if you are in high humidity areas and for interior work in those areas. I do get some sometimes but a quick wash and its gone.

In the beginning I used ash laminated on plywood and did not want any real maintainance that comes with the varnish or with ash . But I did want the wood grain print showing under the paint. This was done just because I wanted a fresher look after three years of pretty heavy use.

[Greg Luckett]

I wonder if the difference will show up in durability?

[Oyster]

Well I can only speak from personal preference and personal thinking. I am a firm believer in painting and varnishing before its needed. I also use my boat and do not baby them. I drag anchors, bunches of sand, chain, clam racks, and just about everything in between.

I walk on every single area of the boat and do not wear or take any additional steps to be carefull. I bring the boat home and rinse the boat down and just chamois the surfaces and place it away, rarely spending anymore time than around 15 to 20 minutes on it.

So I want to stay alerted to whats going on and also keeping the boat sealed and sanding it , stroking every single grain to see if there is any issues with the boat, or boats.. This will indeed minimize my additional and unnecessary work along the way as the boat ages. But I also have never attempted to get much more time out of any brand. So the process is the same no matter what you apply and the savings is huge for the same amount of time for me anyway between freshening up.

[Konrad]

You're going about it the right way.  I let my Vacay go for a few years due to kids, moving, etc., and it was a labor-intensive month to bring it back up to speed last fall.

[Frank Hagan]

When I was still taking Practical Sailor, they had tested Rustoleum paint and found it the equal of much more expensive paints ... but they were only two years into the test.  I don't know how it fared after three or four years.

Home Depot now sells Rustoleum Marine Paint ... probably the same formulation with the required safety wording for marine use.