Antifouling for the Med? Compass?

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brownsox

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On our previous boat we used Compass antifouling, which seemed fine. We had the 'new' boat antifouled for us in France and annoyingly can't remember what brand paint it was.
Compass antifouling is good value but on their website it says "For use in inland waters, the North Sea and the Baltic. Self-polishing antifouling."
Question 1: would it be ok for the Med? I believe the Baltic is also a high algae growth area. I could ask Compass but if they said yes, would I be convinced??
Question 2: Is it ok to apply one brand over another, priming only where the old stuff has worn through?
Cheers
 
We use an Italian brand (eroding) called 'Marlin'. This is considerably cheaper than International, and works well in the central/eastern Med.

Mind you, knowing the Italians' tendency to consider laws as

a) advisory and

b) mainly directed at other people

I wouldn't be surprised if its success is down to a (un)healthy dose of TBT.
 
I don't find the Med to be a particularly heavy fouling area. We antifouled with white International Cruiser in April 2006 at Port Leucate. After a full season and a winter afloat in Bastia, Corsica we hauled out in April 2007.
P1010737.jpg

I had wiped the hull over a couple of times during the season but only lightly with a cloth to avoid losing too much eroding a/f.

Note the keel is Coppercoated, this was then 10 years old but rust had got beneath it. No fouling, though!

At this haulout I applied white Screwfix a/f, very low cost stuff, which performed adequately with a couple of wipes over.

In 2008 I fully intended to use local Greek a/f, which I had been told was OK. When we arrived back in Greece there was a road transport strike and all the chandlers had sold out. We managed to obtain some Plastimo eroding a/f, a bit pricey but all we could get. During the season I didn't touch the hull once and it remained surprisingly clean. This is haulout at the beginning of October. New Coppercoat with absolutely nothing on it and very slight sliming on the hull.
IMG_0525.jpg


My advice based on all this is that the Compass a/f will almost certainly be OK. I'm using XM this year, bought some at the NEC on Tuesday. £39 for 3 litres.
I have always applied new a/f over old and never had a problem of adhesion.
 
well, you are flippin lucky!

There are other places in the med much more fouly, and it seems it even varies from one part of a marina to another. Examples include some powerboats which need to be lifted and jetwashed several times a season because due to barnacle fouling they can only do 15knots instead of 25+. It seems that massive amounts of copper in the antifoul is (sometimes) at least part of the solution.

edit - it's definitely ok to plonk new antifoul over the old. It's also ok to go easy with the jetwash as that can lift good antifoul as well as not-so-good.
 
We had our boat in the med sea from 2001 till 2006. Used Compass high performance at about £40 ish per can delivered direct to the marina in Port Vell. Worked very well. Now in the more sedate french canals and still using it.
 
If you are on the move for most of the summer months then there doesn't seem to be much build up.
If you are afloat during the winter the beastie activity seems to be a bit lower as well.
BUT, if you leave the boat in a marina during July and August then that is open season for barnacles , weed, etc and I have seen some lovely gardens
We have used Seago with some success but at the moment I am on cheap Greek antifouling. So far so good.
 
The old ports like Alicante, Cartagena and (I believe,) Barcelona, host a coral worm which doesn't seem to respond to any existing a/f yet. Don't know about further East, but possibly they exist wherever there may have been a concentration of medieval sewage.
It's a real nuisance, the sooner the chemists do what they say on the tin, the better.
 
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