Anti Fouling of Choice

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Dotty

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I know it is a bit late in the day, and the summer is nearly over, but we are launching our boat next week after two years work and need to anti foul this weekend. Anyone got any favourite or hated products. We are East Coast UK, and I have a very well scrubbed bottom.
 
Everybody will have their favorite- PBO testing etc sems to think the premium brands are good, but would still buy cheapy stuff. I bought some boat jumble stuff one year and coudn't get the lumps out. International Cruiser Uno seems to work well for me in a marina, but it depends on your mooring, how much water flow you get, if you dry out or not and what you pocket is willing to spend. I know a lot of people like Blakes Tiger stuff. I like the look of James Jermain's boat this season with all the different antifoulings painted on. I think it will be an interesting result, though not toally scientific.
 
I have always gone for some very expensive stuff - Micron Optima.

There are two reasons for this: first it works superbly, lifting out each year the bottom is completely clean, not even any slime, and no need even to pressure wash. Ditto when I left the boat in the water for 18 months without a lift out. It's also worked well in all the different cruising locations that I've used it.

Although it's expensive, it saves the cost of a mid-season lift out for those based in places like the Solent. If you have scrubbing posts nearby ("well scrubbed bottom"), then this advantage fades, although to saves you from having to do the occasional scrub.

The other advantage: because it is very soft and erodes away, the boat doesn't build up layers of old anti-fouling over the years. Cleaning away the old anti-fouling this year for example took me just over half an hour to do the whole boat - real luxury!

One year I tried Blakes equivalent very soft racing eroding antifouling which was a bit cheaper (tho' still very expensive). it didn't work nearly as well and was a pain to get off in the winter - it's not nearly as soft, so I won't try that again.

The disadvantage of Optima for an East Coaster (apart from price) is that if you are going aground all the time it can rub off from the bottom of the keel.
 
Anti foul paint is the only consumer product which we buy and, when it doesn't work, we never complain and ask for our money back.
I've been antifouling now for 18 years and I think I've given it a good bash and have come to the following conclusion.
Buy the cheapest anti fouling you can find, apply only one coat, and do it every year. The result will be as good as if you apply two coats of the most expensive one.
One day I'm going to apply two coats of Dulux gloss and see how that works. My instincts tell me that it will be more effective than what I've been doing for all these years.
 
I sail out of Walton. Last year I tried International's Uno and had "grass" growing by mid-season so this year I've gone back to XM 2000 (cheap as well)and thus far is working well. White seems to work better than other colours. A friend uses Blakes and he is very pleased with the result. The boatyard even commented on how clean his boat was at lift out.

Kim
 
[ QUOTE ]
What's right in Lymington may not be right in Burnham, etc

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, though I've used this stuff when based both in Lymington and in Burnham, and it was great in both places! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Hi Dotty,

Down here in Devon, we've in a 'heavy fouling area' apparently, and certainly when I tried International's Cruiser stuff (after years of Micron) is was a disaster - almost useless.

Have gone back to Micron Extra and, so far, it's excellent. Still, there's a lot of season to go yet! As others have said, it largely depends on your area, water movements, boat usage, what do other boats adjacent to you use etc - so quite a lot to consider.

Being incredibly mean, I'm following the reports on here of the 'cheaper' brands as well as the 'Chilli Powder Saga', to see if I can get the same protection for less!

Cheers Jerry
 
Simon

We used Optima for many years in black on our last boat and for 2 years in black on our current one and it was excellent and here in Poole slime is the real test of an antifoul. Then last year we raised the waterline to meet a blue hull stripe and black would not have looked good, so we changed to white Optima. Whilst we came out after 11 monthas as clean as we went in, the antifoul had blistered severely between the coats which when the bottom was pressurewashed left black circles all over the bottom and whilst Optima is soft, rubbing these out proved impossible by hand. We had a £500 bill for a slurry blast job, still had a days work rubbing down and by then had no weather windows to use water based Optima and had to go 'back' to Micron which is more weather tolerant. International admitted a paint defect 'never seen it before though' and supplied the paint free. We relaunched mid March and had to have a Diver down by the end of May to remove the slime and now less than a month later we need him again despite constant use of the boat and a boat, you can almost watch the slime grow.

We will have another clean by the diver before our main cruise at the end of next month and I may do one myself whilst we are away although perhaps the location change may improve things and slow the growth rate.

On our boat the difference in cost of using Optima over Micron is around £150, which is enough to pay for 4.5 diver cleans, so it is a viable option but I'm not happy. The diver tells me that from his viewpoint all the boats in our area are badly slimed this year despite many different antifouls.

A clubmate however used Blakes version of Optima (Ocean Performer I think) also in white at the same time as we did and only applied one coat so his costs were no more than ours for 2 coats of Micron. So far his white bottom is just as clean as when he launched, no slime at all and I am watching with interest.

What will we do next year? The jury is out, I was so peed off at Optima blistering last year but Micron in Poole at least is hopeless (and in our marina all the other basic antifouls are too) but that said we have almost enough left for next year and there is always the diver. Otherwise I am extremely tempted to go the one coat Blakes Ocean Performer route and if it doesn't last the full season one diver clean will still be cheaper overall. At least Blakes (also a 2 pack product) has a solvent base and isn't so weather critical for application which for us is important, our application slot for various reasons has to be during Feb/March.

Robin
 
I'm fairly sure it must have been Blakes Ocean Performer that I tried one year instead of the Optima - I seem to remember it was something like £15 maybe £20 cheaper a tin. It was billed as Blakes equivalent of Optima - soft racing antifouling. It wasn't bad - but the Optima was noticeably more effective - there was a noticeable layer of slime (tho' thin) when she came out with the Blakes, which I never had with the Optima. But more importantly for me, sanding down the Blakes was a beast compared to the Optima - probably because it's solvent based it took a lot of hard work. So I decided that in future it was worth paying the £15 (or whetever it was) extra for the Optima.

Agreed that you need a weather window for Optima. However, on the occasions it has been dampish I have gone ahead and plastered it on anyway, and didn't notice bad effects.

Sorry to hear about the defective batch /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Hope it doesn't happen to me!
 
Hi Robin,

We have used Blakes Ocean Performer last year with excellent results; no weed, no slime (in the Chichester area). I can thoroughly recommend it. Using it again this year. Applied it Feb and still beautifully clean.

Having also used Optima one year I can agree Ocean Performer is less restrictive of application conditions than Optima although I would take the min specified temperature of 5 degrees seriously. I tried applying it at 3 deg and the paint stiffened up significantly, and had to stop. Apart from this I reckon it goes on more smoothly than Optima.

In regard to paint flaking I reckon both Optima and Ocean Performer probably need more 'keying' than stuff like Micron to avoid flaking. This is most especially true if there are any areas of non antifoul paint, like epoxy primers that need covering.
 
AwlGrip Gold

Well, my boat came with AwlGrip Gold a/f, and knowing no better, I have always used the same. It seems far better than most of those around me. There is no need to get it off again, as it works as long as it is there. The original was blue, so I put on a coat of red, and repaint those areas where the blue shows through. There is no problem about hauling-out, the stuff does not 'go off' when exposed to air - indefinitely. It is about the same price as Micron Extra (£90/2.5L maybe cheaper if you shop around). The only boats which have looked as clean as mine seem to consistently be ME. SimonCr, of course, keeps his clean by getting miles under his keel (see July YW).

/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Re: AwlGrip Gold

[ QUOTE ]
SimonCr, of course, keeps his clean by getting miles under his keel (see July YW).

[/ QUOTE ]
You've rumbled me! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Re: AwlGrip Gold

BTW, Black Sugar was moored just behind me when I was in Burnham. Very nice looking boat!
 
Re: AwlGrip Gold

BTW, didnt you have your tender nicked at Burnham? Did you ever get it back? I enjoyed your article and was suitably jealous. World-class author....wow
 
Re: AwlGrip Gold

Glad you liked it! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif The tender (and outboard) WERE nicked but while I was in Walton Backwaters, at anchor in the middle of nowhere. I recovered the dinghy next day, but not the outboard. It had a happy ending, though - the police recovered the outboard about 6 months later, and I now have it back /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif))
 
Just remember that unless there is NO antifoul left - clean hull - a number of antifouls are incompatible and/or have adhesion problems. Choice of antifoul may therefore be dictated by whats left on the hull unless an expensive slurry clean is undertaken. I was about to slap on the local recommended antifoul when I thought of checking this aspect and was assured that only another "hard" antifoul would go on top of Micron Extra. Got the same advice from both manufacturers although one suggested using an etch primer might work.
 
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