Antifoul v Coppercoat v Ultrasonic

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Cheeky Girl

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Hi
Not wanting to start another anchor thread BUT :D

Starting to look at various options regarding cost and efficiency.

There seems to be alot of negativity to Coppercoat from "someone said" rather than actual testimonies
and not much said about Ultrasonic .
I did look at a boat with Ultrsonic and he swore by it and had a roller to use every so often to give the hull a quick clean.

Any comments graetly appreciated, the boat is kept @ Kip on the Clyde.
 
A "friend" had it on his 28ft boat. They could not feed it enough power on a mooring so gave up with it.
Did a Google and one claims 0.7 amps so maybe they have greatly improved but many are still under the impression they need lots of power ? I was !
Will be interesting to see results from boat owners who have it fitted
 
We had Coppercoat from new on our last boat, here are my thoughts (based in the Solent)

The "paint" was applied in October at borderline to low temperature. We kept the boat for 4 years and year 1 was unimpressed. Year 2 the coating was turning green which helped and year 3 I felt the coating was working well. We sold the boat at year4. Was the cost worth it, probably yes, but the boat still needs lifting for anodes. Where the keels dipped into the mud though it was useless. I know someone who had a mud berth and his experience was it was useless. It seems the coat turns black rather than green and the black copper is not effective whereas the green copper is. Finally the rudder got water ingress and the coppercoat fell off.

Our current boat has normal antifoul, I would coppercoat her in the future however no-one has yet convinced me that it will stick to the lead keel? If I do go down the route of coppercoat I probably wouldnt do the rudder and accept it will need an annual blue-paint when she is lifted for anodes.

Just my experience
 
Here's my experience of Coppercoat. It was on my boat when I bought her and had reached the end of its life (had done at least 12/15 years then). When I spoke to Coppercoat then (back in 2008) I was told the old copper coat had to be removed. This is expensive. The advice may have changed but I would be wary about what it costs to deal with once it stops working as it will. In 2008 I rubbed it back (not removed) with 140 grit wet and dry and then applied antifoul primer and have anti fouled annually since then without any problems.

It would worry about where you keep your boat. On the Clyde the worst place I have encountered is the Gareloch and speaking to Silvers (at Rosneath) I wa told that the only thing that worked was Micron - their experience was that Coppercoat didn't work there. Further down the Clyde the fouling disappears and frankly you almost don't need to do it every year. Anyway this is just to say think about where your boat is because the local fouling level will have an impact - even if you commit to spending the high price of Coppercoat or its equivalents. If you are new to your area speak to some of the long term users for their views before you commit to anything. Having been in Kip for a couple of seasons some years ago I'd be worried about the brackish water (created by the stream that flows in). I had brown staining from the peaty water.
 
No idea about ultrasonic antifoul but anything that adds to the demands for electricity isn’t going to get onto my boat. I spend too much time away from shore power to go down that route.
We have Coppercoat on our boat and I’m very content with it. The boat had it applied when it was new, we refreshed it at the 15 year point. We spent a winter in San Carles de la Rapita which has a reputation for horrible fouling: the hull was unaffected apart from a light covering of slime. In contrast, the Saildrive leg was covered in mussels and both heads outlet valves were so badly overgrown with mussels, coral worm and stuff that neither head was functional by the time we came to lift out.
I have a Hurley 18 as well, which has conventional antifoul. It works about as well as the CC but needs doing every year, whereas the CC just needs power washing on lift out and it good to go for another year. Well, it’ll need abrading in another year or two, but that’s a few sheets of sandpaper and a days hard graft.
 
Happy with my coppercoat. 5 or 6 years now. Once a year out and held in the slings overnight, usually comes out about 2pm as the last lift if I pick my day right.

Have an engineer friend who sorts the anodes and checks the seacocks while I wash it down, touch up the prop antifoul, and polish and wax the top sides. It's a long evening and 2 ladders helps.
 
Perhaps the new silicone antifouling might be considered.

The life is around 5 years I believe.

Anyone tried it yet ?

I did inspect a hull whilst the boat was out of the water. Felt a bit tacky dry,
but very slippery when water was applied.
 
LONG_KEELER said:
Perhaps the new silicone antifouling might be considered
Click to expand...
I watched " mighty ships" and it was about supertankers. It got to antifouling and where they go to ,possibly Saudi and get antifouled for $1 million.
It was silicon. The advantage they have is that they are often at speed and moving so seems perfect conditions for silicon.
The sv delos you tube channel did their 54ft yacht with it but when it was launched it just sat for far too many months and really weeded up from not moving. I'm not sure what happened after that.
 
LONG_KEELER said:
Perhaps the new silicone antifouling might be considered.

The life is around 5 years I believe.

Anyone tried it yet ?

I did inspect a hull whilst the boat was out of the water. Felt a bit tacky dry,
but very slippery when water was applied.
Click to expand...
I have Silic One on my sports cruiser and am impressed with it.

In my 2nd year with it now, just needed a touch up where my fenders had worn it away.

Growing in popularity as the active ingredient in traditional anti foul is reduced.

It's the future.....
 
Had Coppercoat on the previous boat.

First 3-4 years were absolutely brilliant. Some slime, nothing more.
Year 5-6 some growth along the waterline, slime all over and barnacles on the bottom of the keel.
Year 7 moved from the UK East Coast to Brittany. Awful results - lost of growth on the hull and barnacles on the keel.
Year 8 had the hull abraded. This gave it a new lease of life. Some minor growth along the waterline.
Year 9 - 10 Decent enough, but not brilliant. Lots of barnacles/mussels on the keel.

Sold the boat. New owner has now had the keel antifouled with conventional antifoul.

Coppercoat is advertised as lasting 10 years.
I think they have pretty much delivered. Had I kept the boat, I would have had her redone.
If you work it out CC vs conventional AF (annual lift out/in and time/money to antifoul) there's very little in it either way cost-wise, but Coppercoat is a lot less hassle.

As the boat was on a swinging mooring, due to the power requirements of ultrasonic AF, I never considered it to be a viable option.

New boat is currently being Coppercoated.
 
Last edited:
MoBos.
Marginal results down here on the South East coast in the Medway. Moorings on fairly brackish tidal flows of a couple of knots.
Most boats with Coppercoat came with it applied previously elsewhere by previous owners.
Many if not all have now been over coated with conventional A/F.
One boat where the skipper had decided to try Coppercoat was overcoated with ordinary A/F within a season or two.
My motorboat which came from the N.Wales also initially had Coppercoat but has now been covered over with ordinary anti-foul.
Average hours is usually quite high around 100 - 150 hours per annum.

We are lucky in that we have our own drying blocks with jet washer and no drama or expense to get underneath to carry out A/F and anode work.
 
Hot Property said:
I have Silic One on my sports cruiser and am impressed with it.

In my 2nd year with it now, just needed a touch up where my fenders had worn it away.

Growing in popularity as the active ingredient in traditional anti foul is reduced.

It's the future.....
Click to expand...

Interesting.

I believe there is one distributor that specialises in recreational craft
rather than ships.

Edit
====

Just looked. It's Hempel.
 
I looked at all the options before getting copper coated last July.

Ultrasound, for me the power usage did not stack up. Ideal for a motorboat that has shore power when not being used. On batteries on a swing mooring no chance. I did speak to the company at length during the last London Boat Show

Silica One, Hempel state that it only works with an average hull speed of 7kts (if my memory serves me right) ideal for motorboats.

I researched CC before getting it done, including talking to the company at length at the SBS in 2017 and 2018. I had it professionally applied in July 2019. the temperatures should be higher than the middle of February, in a yard that did it in a shed, no chance of it getting rained on and they applied it using a spray not rollers, the finish is very smooth.

The boat had been in the water for 12 months before the job was done and the hull looked like the Kew Gardens tropical house, she has been in the water for 11 months and the hull is as clean as it was the day she was splashed.
 
LONG_KEELER said:
Interesting.

I believe there is one distributor that specialises in recreational craft
rather than ships.

Edit
====

Just looked. It's Hempel.
Click to expand...
It's easy to obtain and do it DIY.

Initial application is 4 coats over existing AF but after that it's one coat every 3 years. Instead of being lifted and chocked off to do AF I now have a lift and hold to maintain engine, anodes and check the coating. Probably not worth doing on any boat that can't acheive 10 knots plus.
 
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