Antifoul and the mud berth

[Durcott]

Hi folks - Happy New Year ...

My small bilge keel yacht boat spends most of her time sitting in the soft mud on the River Axe at Uphill. I dragged her out this year, and although filthy (obviously) there was almost no weed on her at all under the mud, and she scrubbed up clean with very little effort. (In fact, the berth is down stream of a sewage works - teriffic).

There is a patchy covering of old anti foul left, which I was about to touch up, with a view to redoing it at the end of the next season.

However, searching through the forum on this topic has uncovered a hint that anti fouling a boat sat on mud may be pointless.

What do the good folks here reckon? I've got plenty of other things to sort out!

Thanks

Jeff

 

[ProDave]

I have te opposite experience.

At crane out, the very bottom of my lift keel boat that sits on the mud at low tide, has a healthy crop of small barnacles that need scraping off.

Clearly the antifoul has rubbed off.

The rest of the hull that doesn't sink into the mud remains quite clean.

This year I'll try an extra coat on the very bottom bit, but that will probably just delay how long it takes to get scrubbed off.

If anyone can recommend an anti foul that lasts longer in mud please let us know.

 

[Fantasie 19]

I have te opposite experience.

At crane out, the very bottom of my lift keel boat that sits on the mud at low tide, has a healthy crop of small barnacles that need scraping off.

Clearly the antifoul has rubbed off.

The rest of the hull that doesn't sink into the mud remains quite clean.

This year I'll try an extra coat on the very bottom bit, but that will probably just delay how long it takes to get scrubbed off.

If anyone can recommend an anti foul that lasts longer in mud please let us know.

..couple of seasons ago my sister got me a couple of litres of Blakes Hard Racing which according to the tin was ideally suited for boats on drying moorings.... the down side of course is that you then have to sand or scrape to avoid the build up.... either that or put a coat of hard on - with eroding over the top??

 

[prv]

We used hard antifoul on KS, which sat in the mud every tide. The unpainted places where the keel blocks had been always grew a fine crop of weed, so I think the antifoul was doing its job.

Pete

 

[rob2]

It's the down side of a drying mooring that the hull gets a thin mud coating and the bottom of the keels will tend be be scraped clean. The mud does tend to block the permeability of an eroding antifouling and, being soft. when you scrub the mud off it also takes off a lot of the antifouling. A hard antifouling will survive much better, but if the mud is allowed to build up fouling will attach to the mud. However, if you don't antifoul, anything growing will get a much better grip on the hull!

The best way to prevent build up of fouling is to use the boat as much as possible, but some hard antifouling will help a lot.

Rob.

 

[Seajet]

I've always used eroding a/f on my boat, which sits on a drying mud mooring.

She doesn't usually get any weed, but does get small barnacles on the ballast bulb and hull centre where it sits in the mud.

Having once had to strip quite a few years worth of hard a/f off a 30' boat, nothing on earth would make me use anything but self eroding stuff !

 

[Durcott]

Thanks folks - all good thoughts as usual.

Jeff