Antifouling. Brush or Roller?

Miss Ellie should be going in sometime over the next couple of weeks and Trevera , hopefully within a few months /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif if all plans come together /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
 
cartoon-boy.gif
 
I watched the chap in the next boat using a large roller for his antifouling. Replying to my query, he said "I never could understand why the professionals use those small rollers - a big one is quicker and splashes less."

So I tried with a big roller first. The points have already been made - it absorbs a huge quantity of antifouling, so it's heavy and it's wasteful. I tried milking off the residue with a gloved hand, but you still end up throwing away a lot of expensive antifouling at the end of the job. A mini-roller is nearly as quick as a maxi-roller, and I found it nearly as accurate around the fiddly bits as a brush.

Oh, and I didn't find that the little one splashed any more than the big one. My mechanics is a bit rusty, but I think it's to do with angular momentum. Whatever size roller you use, if you roll it too quickly, it will throw off paint.

Moral: if there's a choice between a tip from a professional and a tip from an amateur, the pro is a better bet.
 
Roller - we use foam but the B&Q ones are useless and fall apart - worth buying decent ones. I antifouled a friends boat today and used one roller per coat - mainly because I got the first one dirty. Might switch to spraying soon though!
 
Used a mini foam roller to put the underwater primer on today. Worked a treat. The topside gloss was applied with the same type of roller.

TaylorAFprimer_1.jpg
 
It's a Taylor 4.66 metre. I bought it as a Fjord but the Boat Builders certificate number tells a different story.
Taylor Espanola were, unsuprisingly, a Spanish company that built Swedish Crescent Boats under licence.
The primer reaches 2" above the real waterline. I'll be putting black hard antifoul over that to provide a boot-top to combat the lake slime that creeps up the sides of boats here.
 
Keep your old A/F tin and put your brushes and rollers in that with a little white spirit and they will fine to use the next year.
 
It doesn't eat rollers its the solvent in the antifoul that attacks the glue which holds the rollers onto the spindles
 
Top