Antifoul time soon...what to go for?

langstonelayabout

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Mine in fact isn’t in a marina, it’s a mid river non walk ashore pontoon, whose purpose is to fit more boats in than swinging moorings, which we would prefer.
A mid river non walk ashore pontoon? Then you will be within a pontoon or two of us! We are on Red pontoon (the old A pontoon) in the summer, and this year will be back using CU Pro on the hull and Hempel hard racing antifouling on the keels and rudder.

Last year we used 3 leftover tins of antifouling of different types: hard, soft, Hempel, Seajet and International. All as bad as each other! (No difference in the fouling growth between the antifouling types) We scrubbed 3 times between April and October.

I did find a chemical lab that sold TBT by the gramme, but was shocked at the price. I won’t be adding any to this year’s antifouling.
 

Snowgoose-1

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Jotun Seaforce available here in Portugal and it now comes from UK factory since Spanish one closed. Jotun Iberia tell me there are no restrictions on use.

The commercial sector is very competitive with much lower profit margins and I would suggest the UK restrictions are to enable them to flog leisure products on which they make more money.
I think most UK leisure sailors are under the impression that weaker, or restricted contents formats of antifoul, compared with commercial, are produced to comply with legislation. Is this not so ?

Or is it more a health and safety issue ?
 

Graham376

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I think most UK leisure sailors are under the impression that weaker, or restricted contents formats of antifoul, compared with commercial, are produced to comply with legislation. Is this not so ?

Or is it more a health and safety issue ?

Maybe you're correct about leisure products being a weaker mix but it's been about 30 years since I used any of them.

I don't know what effect legislation has on the strength or contents of it, except of course when TBT was banned many years ago and the supply of drums which "fell of the back" of Irish Sea ferries dried up :cry: I may be wrong but when Jotun brought in the "professional application" rule for Seaforce, I don't remember them saying only to be used on commercial vessels.
 

Chiara’s slave

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A mid river non walk ashore pontoon? Then you will be within a pontoon or two of us! We are on Red pontoon (the old A pontoon) in the summer, and this year will be back using CU Pro on the hull and Hempel hard racing antifouling on the keels and rudder.

Last year we used 3 leftover tins of antifouling of different types: hard, soft, Hempel, Seajet and International. All as bad as each other! (No difference in the fouling growth between the antifouling types) We scrubbed 3 times between April and October.

I did find a chemical lab that sold TBT by the gramme, but was shocked at the price. I won’t be adding any to this year’s antifouling.
You’d know if we were, Dragonflys aren’t exactly common. We’re in Yarmouth, IoW. South pontoon, though not right now. We scrub often, so often that some folks here think I’m mad. I daresay they are content to haul a reef around with them at 4kn, and we are not. Therefore coppercoat is best for us, as it will take any amount of sponging off. Which is my preferred method, done fortnightly in the summer.
 

oldmanofthehills

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Once/if it goes in the water I'm going to be applying very thick, anoxic mud (which is cheap) to it very regularly (roughly diurnally).

No experience, and havn't consulted locally yet, but I have some hopes that will be an at least partly effective antifouling regimen, since I wouldn't expect most fouling to develop under mud. I suppose the effectiveness will partly depend on how deeply the hull is immersed in it, so a centreboarder might do better than my triple keel.

Should this influence my choice of commercial antifouling?

IOW is there a type/brand/application technique especially suitable as a mud supplement?
For 25 years on drying moorings and mud in the Bristol Channel I only ever anti fouled every 5 years, just scraped off a few barnacles and bits of weed when I dried out on grid or beached. Then got copper coat and only bothered by barnacle for next 5 years

Having moved to the easier sailing water of south cornwall, we now must antifoul and our winter afloat got a 75mm thick mat of mussels, polyps and weed. Navigator only this morning factoring in our 200 mile round trip to sort it
 

ducked

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For 25 years on drying moorings and mud in the Bristol Channel I only ever anti fouled every 5 years, just scraped off a few barnacles and bits of weed when I dried out on grid or beached. Then got copper coat and only bothered by barnacle for next 5 years

Having moved to the easier sailing water of south cornwall, we now must antifoul and our winter afloat got a 75mm thick mat of mussels, polyps and weed. Navigator only this morning factoring in our 200 mile round trip to sort it
Thanks. Encouraging
 
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