Anti-fouling my prop?

[J Neeves]

We have tried Prop Speed, Prop Gold (here its a cheaper version of Prop Speed) and Velox on both props and sail drive legs. I think Velox has a slight edge and is easier to apply. Also the left over Velox paint has a long shelf life and the silicone finishes have a finite, short storage life. However we have found unless you are prepared to wipe the props down, quarterly, then you will get growth as anything that is not 'washed' off when the prop is used becomes a foundation for barnacles. Silicone finishes can also be damaged by 'things' in the water and need to be cleaned 'gently' and as soon as you break the surface you again have somewhere for growth.

Both silicone and Velox have very strict application instructions - its not difficult but do as they say!

We have the boat in the water 365 days and I note many who post store the boat on the hard for 6 months - so when you read posts bear in mind some talk of a year and some of 6 months. I'd agree both Prop Speed/Gold and Velox are great for 6 months - without the quarterly wipe down neither are fantastic (but much much better than anything else we have tried) over 12 months here.

Our water temps in the summer are around 26 degrees, winter top teens. Lots of sunshine.


We tried lanolin, sea life loved it and we had preferential growth. Leaving the props uncoated we had what looked like a pineapple in 3 months. We tried a German spray, Nano Tech Prop treatment or the like - waste of time.

We will be re-using Prop Gold and Velox this year - but wipe down quarterly.

Jonathan

 

[Maninita]

I can't agree with the statement that Propspeed is OK for 6 months. The photograph below is of our boat four months after having the hull Copper-coated and the prop done with very expensive Propspeed. It was based in Langkawi Malaysia for those four months and at the end of the time we couldn't get more than 3.5 knots out of it so we had to lift it again. You can see that the hull is nearly clean but the Propspeed seems to have acted as barnacle fertiliser! The growth was as hard a a rock and needed a chisel to get it off. We now put a black plastic bag over the prop every time we leave the boat for more than a week. That works.

 

[charles_reed]

Interesting, this comes up about every 3 years.
I tried various things, such as PropODrive, Velox and various hard antifoulings. None seem to work as well as polishing the prop and using the boat regularly.
Faith is (I suppose) a great antifouling.

 

[zedcell]

Trying the Seajet triple pack system this year. The base coat is a form of liquid araldite like epoxy. The top coat is simply two coats of Seajet emperor. I went for black as I consider this will be less encouraging of growth. Barnacles on the props have buggered my speed and fuel consumption by mid season the past two years - 1 Lanolin (complete waste of space), 2 hammerite special metal primer with a single coat of the same antifoul as used elsewhere - Micron CSC Extra 2 - all worn off but the hammerite was stuck like poo to a blanket, as were the barnacles to the hammerite - the props looked like a couple of round gorse bushes when the boat was hauled out.

Hi I have just applied sea jet to a couple of aluminium duo props how did you find it ?