Antifoul drying time

[Neil]

Last year I used Cruiser Uno, put a second coat on as soon as the first was dry to the touch and was very disappointed at the result; much growth within months. This year, I bought Micron II. It says on the tin, "re-coat after 10hr". Since I want to put the reg 4 coats on the water line and rudder, (especially the rudder!), this represents a considerable time out of the water - I pay for lift in and lift out if it's more than the day.

I've read on here that you don't need to wait for the full recoat time, but I'm leery of not doing a proper job..............

 

[pvb]

I've read on here that you don't need to wait for the full recoat time, but I'm leery of not doing a proper job..............

So why not simply follow the instructions? Most of the grumbles people voice here about antifouling not working are because they don't do what the manufacturers recommend.

 

[J Neeves]

I'm with PRV

I do not think there is a consortium of paint companies and boatyards in cohorts to get us to stay out of the water longer than necessary. Paint companies recommend the drying time, because that is what works - they also know that having such long drying times is inconvenient and expensive. Touch dry does not mean there are not still solvents in the painted surface. Fouling round about us can be severe but we applied 3 coats of decent AF and can expect 2 years life (but we need to 'de-slime'), and the boat sits on a swing mooring all year round. Less good AF, you might be lucky to get 1 year. We followed the instructions carefully, primer coat (unnecessary if you are applying over the same paint) and then one coat per day. As the paint dries there are plenty of other tasks, taping, anodes, props, boot top - and it works out well. We might do water line and leading edges (and trailing edge of rudder) first as it then allows to get that extra coat onto the high wear areas at the end of the day.

Having said that if you slipped, washed down, dried, taped and painted its actually difficult to see how you could do much more on the first day anyway.

Our paints are to a different formulation to yours (but sometimes same names), not much point in making any recommendations.

The alternative is CopperCoat - which I wish we had used first up!

Jonathan

 

[Neil]

The alternative is CopperCoat - which I wish we had used first up!

Jonathan

Can I curse the previous owners for not having the foresight?

 

[J Neeves]

Can I curse the previous owners for not having the foresight?

I curse Coppercoat for not having decent advertising 13 years ago

We'ed do it now except that we do not have a cost effective 'stripping' industry here. I asked for a quote Stg2,000 to do a 38' cat. I decided we would continue to use conventional AF.

Jonathan

 

[simonfraser]

This is what I did last April:
Dried boat out 2.5 hrs before low tide
One coat AF micron extra, black
Floated off again
Scrubbed off the boat once late summer, slime, a few barnies on each hull
I do run an ultrasonic emitter on the main hull through ply epoxy, my depth sounder works through it, seems to help