ablative or hard bottom paint on a boat that sits in a slip all summer and gets hauled for winter

the main thing with a hard modified epoxy is the launch window. most of them have to go in the water within some number of days after the last coat, or they lose effectiveness. if you paint in March and the yard doesn't splash you till May, that matters. ablative doesn't care.

i'd also check whether your old hard paint is compatible with the ablative you want. most ablatives can go over a sanded hard paint but read the can. a paint going on top of the wrong one will sheet off in a summer.

i keep mine on a lift so no paint, but the guy in the next slip down here uses an ablative and touches up only the waterline and the spots that wore every spring. he's had the same base for six or seven years.

Chesapeake growth is a different world than the Outer Banks though. you get the tunicates and the barnacles in that warm summer water.

i'm a trailer guy so no direct experience. but my cousin keeps a Grady in Panama City and switched to ablative after he went from a full year in the water to hauling from December to March. he said the ablative wore through at the bow first because that's where the water's fastest. so put an extra coat on the leading edge, waterline and running gear if you go that way.

i ran a hard paint in Great River on my previous boat and switched to ablative on the Canyon. it's softer so it'll scuff when you bump it on the trailer bunks, and it'll come off on your hands if you touch it. that's how it's supposed to work.

as for the sanding: wear a real respirator, not a paper mask. bottom paint dust is copper and other stuff you don't want in your lungs, and most yards in Maryland have rules about sanding with a vacuum system. ask yours before you buy a sander.