Antifoul, how often?

N

nathanlee

Well-Known Member
Joined
9 Jun 2008
Messages
4,990
Visit site
I recently sold Kudu. Before the sale, the now new owner asked me when she was last anti fouled. It hadn't really crossed my mind before she asked, but the answer was...

2008.

The thing is, her bottom is entirely clean.

Blakes Tiger. I don't know if I got a particularly evil batch, but it's still going strong.
 
Every 3 to 4 years if really needed.

A couple of scrubs in the water each season (and the best thing I ever bought to help me do that was a handle with two suckers designed for holding glass but excellent as a movable handhold on the hull)
 
A lot of racing keelboats get antifouled at the beginning of the season, then again before Cowes week.
 
I'm sure a lot of peole will want to know wher Kudu was moored if you don't need anti-fouling! Even the manufacturers admit that the active ingredients will leech out after a (short) UK season, so you've been without for three years.

I went the Coppercoat route as each year I would antifoul and then have back pain for at least a week after.

Rob.

P.S. Nothing really works on a half-tide mooring, the mud layer blocks the antifouling and the barnacles and weed just move in.
 
Last edited:
We done the Colvic last year and its still great. She sits up on her bilges on a swinging/drying mooring in the summer and just gets a few barnacles on the plates, not on the hull. A bit of green on the wooden rudder and thats it realy.
We then keep her in Milford Haven marina where there is a lot of fresh water and the green just goes away after a week or two and the barnacles are also gone by the spring. Be interesting to see how long this will continue though....
 
It's all down to where you keep and use the boat, as much as which antifoul you use.

My understanding is that the best antifoul is to keep changing between fresh and salt water environments, as the weed and bugs are only suited to one of them so die off when you switch to the other.

A friend of mine used to keep his boat in Boston on the Witham (fresh water) and went out into the Wash and Wells next the Sea (salt) regularly. I noticed when we dried out on Roger sands that his hull looked clean and clear although bereft of paint as he was giving it a brush off. He said he hadn't antifouled it for about 8 years...
 
Last edited:
Anti fouling paint life

I have consistently found that a/f paint last about 6 to 8 weeks. From then on I have to scrub at least once per week or before each race. The paint of course has largely disappeared by the end of the season. So not so much concern about paint build up. (i don't put much on anyway).
Scrubbed the little boat yesterday. Did an evening race last night only to pick up a great wad of floating weed on the rudder and possibly the keel. That slowed us down until we found it. At least the first time that has happened. olewill (in a different place not UK)
 
That evil green water in Preston marina is probably more poisonous than any antifoul.

5045243123_035e276bdc_z.jpg
 
Last edited:
Sailing barges in Victorian times did not need anti foul as long as they visited the Pool of London now and then. The river was so polluted that anything on the hull quickly got nuked.
 
I bought a Colvic 20 in Wales [Aberaeron] where the boat lay in a harbour with a river flowing into it. The result was a clean hull all year and one good anti-fouling lasted years. Now I have her in the eastern Med where the guys who run the local boatyard say that A/f lasts a few months - if that. But their solution is a very old one. A rope hauled up and down over the hull to scrape the barnacles means a 'left-out' only once a year. They also say that if barnacles are building up, then you're not using your boat enough - and thus not catching enough fish - and you need to make a few life choices. They are wise men around here.
 
that is my exprience

Trundlebug said:
It's all down to where you keep and use the boat, as much as which antifoul you use.

My understanding is that the best antifoul is to keep changing between fresh and salt water environments, as the weed and bugs are only suited to one of them so die off when you switch to the other.

A friend of mine used to keep his boat in Boston on the Witham (fresh water) and went out into the Wash and Wells next the Sea (salt) regularly. I noticed when we dried out on Roger sands that his hull looked clean and clear although bereft of paint as he was giving it a brush off. He said he hadn't antifouled it for about 8 years...
Click to expand...

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top