Antifouling paint

No solution forthcoming unfortunatly . All on defensive .Eg must be a result of method of application , Mix not right etc , etc ,

the truth of the matter is that it cant stop intense coral and barnacle growth in the hot month of August when boat left static in marina for the month

I have lots of pictures but have not been successful in uploading to forum
 
i was wondering if a trip to fresh water canals wouldent clean the botem off??
In Sweden two week after sailing on the worlds largest fresh water supply all the crustations and slime went!! within two weeks the bottom was so clean it could have been freshly antifouled!!
 
Thats interesting. I do not mean any sarcasm but what sort of depth of water? Went through the french canals once and had a very clean keel afterwards but this was mainly because I was ploughing a furrow most of the way!
 
Re: Antifouling paint - diy copper again (yawn)

i have grp boat in southern france, and it has black Trilux mixed with i kilo of copper per 1litre of trilux. I googled for "coper powder" and found a supplier, and specified "under 250micron" which is dull (but v heavy!) red powder - 20kilos is quite small volume.

Now, unlike every other boat around me in the marina, there isn't a single barnacle on the hull underside. Other develeop barnacles in a matter of weeks. The fact that it is is doen to the paint is shown by the fact that there are tiny areas (i've cleaned them whuilst scuba-isng underneath) where the strogs rubbed off the paint on relaunch.

The surface is *slightly* gritty with this paint so i suppose no good for v serious racing, though hardly noticeable - after a whole season in the water and with clean props but full water and fuel i got 29knots whereas full throttle "light" it might be 32 knots. Planing hull of course, came back from UK via gib with this on so it sticks and survives well.

As this goes on (diy with a roller) it should be like a black metallic car paint - black with a sheen of copper (quite attractive in a gothic sort of way!)

If i did it again (tho no sign of it needing anything at the moment) I wd be a *tiny* bit more careful with the special "finishing" needed: around any metal skin fitting, barnacles *do* appear a little bit but fade out within 3inches or so and i think this is because there's a slight connection from these metqal parts to the surrounding copper-enriched paint which stopped the copper oxides forming. Allowing the paint to dry and then splashing it with some mild acid i spose wd also help it go green arond these areas more quickly: we relaunched within 24hours all dry and the boat stayed black for a few weeks before getting a slight greenish patina which it has held ever since. Or (just thinking now) perhaps if i scrape a slight bit away? yep - that shd do it...

Some people freak out at the large amount (20kilos) of copper now on the bottom of the boat but it seems no problem. I also fitted a galvanic isolator and the anodes do get eaten, but quite slowly. V close inspection of bronze alloy prop shows not a trace of pitting.

Next time i take the thing out i might/will experiment with hand-plating the metal parts (props and rudders) with copper and there a few kits available on the internet that allow this to be done - although the advisors i spoke to on the phone start fretting about the finish but i don't care about the finsih - i WANT it to go greenish, just so long as it sticks nicely. I *might* not try this on the shafts cos erm with extra thickness it might be a bit impossible to ever get the shafts out! Tho if only a few thou, mebbe no prob.

hope this helps
 
[ QUOTE ]
No solution forthcoming unfortunatly . All on defensive .Eg must be a result of method of application , Mix not right etc , etc ,

the truth of the matter is that it cant stop intense coral and barnacle growth in the hot month of August when boat left static in marina for the month

I have lots of pictures but have not been successful in uploading to forum

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe it does not work for you - but we've copper coat on our 46 footer - and ours is parked in Mallorca after 6 months cruising the med (with exceptionally warm waters this year) - and bottoms clean as.

So maybe, just maybe, it could be the application methods etc and Copper Coat mob are not telling you porkies?

Cheers
JOHN
 
I have no reason to suppose it was not done in accordance with maufacturer's instructions although it was not done by me the previous owner bought the correct quantities and was very particular about applying the mixture having nothing left over . I too happened to do some patches following the instructions precisely and got the same result .

The whole boat is an over all colour of green so copper chlorides are certainly being produced

I also find it strange that apart from waterline areas the growth was all over the boat and not confined to specific areas . One would have thought that mistakes in application would have happened in patches .

In your case you are pretty close to the fresher flow from the Atlantic . Perhaps the mineral content of the sea water is much different being less concentrated than where I am .

I would be interested more to hear from someone else with specific experience of Italian waters

So not yet proven !!!
 
Jim

I have applied Copper Coat on our Etap 35i. A friend and I applied it ourselves over two coats of ME100 epoxy, this we did in March of this year. The friend who helped has now had Coppercoat on two boats. It was his recommendation that initially interested me.

Just before the Scuttlebutt Cherbourg trip I slipped the boat on the scrubbing posts at Itchenor. There were no crustaceans but a little weed on the water line exposed to the sun at the bow. The rest of the underside was covered in a thin green slime, much as I have seen before on conventional AF.

We used a cold water pressure washer, which took the slime of in about 45 mins for the whole boat.

So far I am pleased with Coppercoat, however I have heard others say it does not perform well in warmer waters.
 
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