Antifouling in the med

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sia20

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I have my boat in the south of france, what antifoul would you recomend international micron extra or interspeed ultra ??

boat is a searay 275 with a kad 44 diesel max speed aprox 30 knots
 
I'm in SoF too. DONT use inrterspeed ultra imho. Its a/f properties last a season, fine, but then you have 2 coats of "dead" paint stuck to your hull and they wont come off. After 4 years the thickness is massive

A few med folks on here, me incl, are going to use Micron as houghn said. Micron is eroding, so it wears off and you don't get the thickness build up. Mine is being painted in 3 weeks. It turns out there are 3 micron products, Extra, Ultima and 66, and I don't know the difference, and the website is junk, but i have asked their tech people and will report back when i have an answer as to which does what

The website does say Optimum is water based, thin film, good for 1 season, thereas Extra is thinners-based, traditional, good for 2 seasons. But it doesn't say much on micron 66, grrr.
 
I use Titan antifoul in Majorca but to be honest, your hull is the least of your worries. It's sterngear fouling (ie props, rudders, shafts etc) which really affects your speed. In your case, lifting your drives clear of the water when not using your boat would help a lot
 
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......lifting your drives clear of the water when not using your boat would help a lot

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This might expose the hydraulic shafts to barnacle build up which could rip your seals when retracting....best check!
When leaving my boat (in the Med) I cover the props in Lanolin (I can reach over the bathe platform and do this underwater)....very very effective. Lots of previous advice on the forum, do a search on "Lanolin"
 
The thread a couple of months ago resulted in many of us saying we wanted eroding antifoulings, to stop build up of thick dead layers of traditional a/foul paint.

International do 3 eroding antifouls for yachts. Micron Optima, Extra and 66. The retail website only describes O and E in detail, and I rang a couple of big chandlers to find out more incl Jimmy Green and they said "we've been in this business 20 years and never heard of M66 - are you sure sir?"

I just spoke to a really helpful guy at International. A paint chemist. He said do not use Optima on mobos. It is a thin film water based paint, lasts one season max, suited only to light racing yachts etc. It is sold only in 2 litre tubs. For a mobo where you want eroding a/f he said use Extra or 66. 66 is only sold to the trade but he was crystal clear that it is a significantly superior product to Extra. Will often last 2 seasons, very strong in chemical bug repellents, etc etc. He said if you want a top job in the med there is no question, use Micron 66 not Micron Extra

I have M66 going on my boat mid April so will report back later
 
Useful info thanks, but 66 is readily available retail, just google it. I think its being targetted at superyachts because of the 2 year lift out, and lifting a 1,000 tonne yacht is not cheap I guess. If I was cynical I could suggest that International don't want too many smaller boats using it, 'cos they're quite happy for us to buy new anti-foul every year?

I'm definitely going for 66, and probably the full 3/4 coats and see if it lasts two years. I can replace anodes underwater if necessary
 
Good stuff. I'm having only 2 coats of M66 becuase I want proof that it wears off before I commit to any more. So we can compare. I'd quite like it if my boat slimes up at 12mths and yours doesn't, cos that kinda proves the stuff rubs off, which is what I want

Incidentally my boat has to be lifted winter 2008 for its 5-year big MCA out-of-water inspection, so I'll be paying for a lift anyway. Hence I can paint on more a/f if needed, at minimal marginal cost. Yours too surely?
 
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Incidentally my boat has to be lifted winter 2008 for its 5-year big MCA out-of-water inspection, so I'll be paying for a lift anyway. Hence I can paint on more a/f if needed, at minimal marginal cost. Yours too surely?

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That's a very good point, hadn't made the link.
 
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Do you treat trim tabs etc wit AF
What about rudders?

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I'm going to this year, tried the lanolin based stuff last year and wasn't that impressed. Also i'm planning to take off the bowthruster props and do them both sides and the tunnel, otherwise the bowthruster loses most of its efficiency later in the season
 
Yup I'll report back

I do the tabs and rudders in a/f. Because Micron 66 is eroding I'll have extra coats put on the leading edges

On the shafts and props I have never discovered a miracle product (including propspeed, which was expensive and not worth it imho) so the best answer imho is to pay a diver €100 for a scrub, couple of times each season

Fingers x-ed the M66 works. The extra fuel bills on a 58 footer from a furry bottom are massive, esp as I am quite high mileage. On your 67er it will be even more, so it would be great to find a product that works better than the stuff I've been using up till now
 
jfm, I used Micron CSC eroding antifoul when I was in the UK on most of my boats despite being advised that Micron CSC was not designed for planing hulls. I found it worked v well and there was still plenty left on the hull after 1 yr. I used 2 thick coats of the stuff and if the boat previously had hard antifoul paint on it, I just scraped the loose stuff off and put the CSC paint straight on top. I think International are wary of approving it for planing hull use because a planing hull can mean everything from a boat with 15kts top speed to one with 80kts top speed. IMHO, most of us cruise in the 18-25kt range and do less than 100hrs pa so any eroding paint will be fine. Here in Majorca, I've been asking for my boat to be done in Micron CSC or whatever the current equivalent is for 3 years but I've been persauded that the local brew called Titan (can't find a website)is a good performer and, to be fair it is. I talked to my diver tonight and he says that the Titan paint will last another season so I'm thinking of not re antifouling this year
He said something interesting things about sterngear as well. Firstly, Propspeed is f*****g useless but I've found this out to my cost a couple of years back already. Secondly, he says there's no harm in painting the sterngear with antifoul paint particularly if you're not going to use the boat for a while afterwards. Yes it will flake off quickly but it will give the sterngear an extra few weeks of protection which, in the Med, is worth having. He says also that using lanolin also works but to no greater extent than simply antifouling your sterngear. He also said that, whilst the most common way of applying lanolin is by diluting it with thinners, the best way of applying it is by heating each surface and applying it neat. He also pointed out that for the cost of lifting your boat and applying a sterngear treatment, you could pay for several diver cleans every year but then he would say that! All in his opinion of course
 
Thanks mike. Sounds good. Yes lots of folk say dont use eroding on planing mobos but that doesn't seem right to me and your experience proves it. So I'm mind-made-up to use micron66.

Propspeed cost me 500 euros and was kinda ok but not as good value as 5 dives. I had propspeed professionally applied 5/9/06 and then the boat was lifted 25/4/07 and here are the pics as she was lifted. The a/foul paint was applied June 06, so it was 10mths old in these pics

Braveheart_2007_liftout_10.sized.jpg


Braveheart_2007_liftout_06.sized.jpg
 
Yup, my Propspeed treatment went the same way in just a few weeks ie. started peeling off in patches. Very disappointing especially for the price
 
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