paint?

what boat are we painting ? you talking bottom paint? graphics paint?

Why?

You may want to post some pictures of your boat may just need to wet sand and buff. Gelcoat is pretty tuff.

Where's Pete???

They are being a little rough on you but if you repaint it is going to crack in the heat of S.C.. It is a huge job but you may want to re gelcoat it not a summer time job. alot of sanding and buffing

Hey Dusty can u post a picture of your boat ? do you think the po painted to cover up some defects such as some blisters or cracks ? what year is this boat ?
       Once one starts painting it will eventually need repainting. there are a couple ways to go, you could sand out the chiping and repaint, or you could do a paint strip down to the original gelcoat, at this point if there were cracks, blisters etc then they would have to be addressed accordingly. I personally would recommend the paint strip method but it is a lot of work no doubt, but once you get that gelcoat shine back you can't beat it.     

So much hate on paint...

I'm pretty good at going against mainstream opinions and starting arguments so here goes again. haha

I painted my boat using single stage acrylic enamel. It's held up fine for the last 3 years, still shines, and I haven't done any buffing, polishing, wet sanding, or any of the other typical gel coat requirements. I might wash it a few times during the summer but that's it. The last picture is after 3 years of sitting uncovered on a lake in Georgia that doesn't see any shade. Notice the reflection on the bottom deck still (sorry it's a cell phone pic though). Basecoat/clearcoat will really shine and look beautiful but even single stage enamels will shine brighter and hold that shine longer than any gel coat.

Original gel coat:


Freshly painted:


A couple weeks ago: