Antifouling results

[Evadne]

In the spring, there were lots of folk asking and not a few replying on what to do about antifouling - whether it is necessary to scrape it all off, whether it needs to be re-applied or even applied at all, etc.

There's been a bit of whingeing about non-nautical posts so I thought I'd try and help out, however boring it might be.

As has been noted, a lot of us have just had our boats hauled out for the winter. I carefully carried out an experiment by scraping 15 years of antifouling off one side and putting on 2 coats of Micron and leaving the other side, apart from a quick rub down with w&d, untouched. My attempts at scientific discovery were cruelly frustrated by the boatyard whisking her out and pressure hosing off all evidence before I could get there yesterday so: anyone else try anything new and found a result his year? What about the much-vaunted Lanolin on the prop?

If end-of-season speed is anything to go by it was a light fouling year in the solent. I also didn't sail around in circles (as someone predicted) so the difference wasn't that great.



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[Magic_Sailor]

What a good idea

Shame the experiment was spoiled.

Certainly, I've not scraped back to the gel coat myself So probably about 8 years antifoul on there) and as far as I'm aware there have been no adverse effects even though Magicienne's been in the water continuously for nearly two years with only a month out last Feb when I wacked on another two coats.

As far as I can see there is virtually no growth at all.

You'd have thought that with the summer being so warm that it would have been a bad year for weed growth.

I'm interested by the lanolin treatment. I vaguely remember this but can you elucidate please.

Magic

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[Peppermint]

Re: I had a lift out and wash

last month and fouling was indeed light. I'd used Blakes Tiger applied in March, and there was a bit of slime and a few crusty bits but nothing to excite Mr Cousteu.

I'm wondering if a cycle of say three pressure washes a year wouldn't suffice instead of the antifouling.



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[Evadne]

Re: Lanolin

There is always the question of how to antifoul the prop. Some folk recommend coating in anhydrous lanolin, some hard scrubbable antifouling and others polishing. I've tried (2) and (3) and found no difference in the barnacle density. (sailing boat, long-keel, small bronze prop.)
I've heard views on lanolin ranging from "perfectly clean" to "covered in growth". This may be dependent on yearly conditions, so I'd be interested in hearing what people have found this year from their particular method.
I've always wondered if the polishing method works as well on "traditional" props as well as on saildrives or where other dissimilar metals are close by.

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[ParaHandy]

Re: Lanolin

.. should be ashamed o' yersel fer posting onything serious hereaboots ...

the only conclusioin i came to with lanolin was that it made it slightly easier to clean the prop and it was still encrusted with muck, slime & barnacles .... although i can't swear to that as i was cleaning it with my scuba stuff on and underwater ...

one thought i do have (about cleaning the prop) is to do so quite regularly .. engine etc is smoother after it's cleaned which might be because the prop gets unbalanced with all that muck on? and a quick poke up the seal helps too ...

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[StephenSails]

Very heavy fouling this year in Chichester Harbour, one of the worst years yet!



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[Davy_S]

I have just hauled out this week, for the last three years I used Flag antifoul. No problem with the hull, just a light coating of slime. I have a vary pitch prop and I always give it a good polish before relaunch it normally comes out clean, but this time although the blades are clean the centre boss is covered in barnacles. Unless I hear of a better way I think I will attempt to paint antifoul on the boss and try that for next season.

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[Mirelle]

Marina based boats and boats on moorings.

We had another year of very heavy fouling, three scrubs needed. Mooring on river Deben in Suffolk. I noticed the water temperature in mid-August was 26 degrees, which must account for some of it.

It would be helpful if people could indicate whether their boat is on a buoy or in a marina, if the latter whether it is the type of marina that has pontoons in a tideway (say, like Woolverstone) or they type that is dug out (Like Levington) or locked (like Shotley) - I suspect that there is a huge difference between the various sorts of moorings with the more or less stagnant water in "dug out" type marinas and locked basis showing far less fouling.

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[tillergirl]

Re: Marina based boats and boats on moorings.

Well we've had this conversation before. Three scrubs this year and on the third occasion I antifouled again. That was in September. Heavy growth has not repeated (obviously the water was cooling) but there is a layer of slime on the new antifouling. That's Blakes Tiger on a swinging mooring on the Blackwater. I'm told the Oysters have done very well down here for the same reason that the weed has.

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[PeterGibbs]

I have tried most of the antifoul paints over the years and I conclude that other factors discriminate more than the brand used, or the number of coats administered.

If your boat is on swing mooring for most of the season, preferably on an east coast river with plenty of fertiliser and pig effluent washing down into it, you are going to get a nice fine growth whatever you put on - there simply is not enough ablation from a 1 kn tide twice a day. A friend of mine uses copious quantities on his hull on the Deben and is still disappointed - that's why he now takes off for the continent for 10 weeks over the summer! It's not the difference in their water that makes for a cleaner hull - it's the movement!

I have had several seasons sitting in east coast marinas, where it seems to me the water moves even less than on a river, but a clean hull results - the concentration of biocide in the water is pretty lethal!

All in all, I conclude, enjoy your swing river mooring, and hope its cheap. because it will cost you a chunk of the savings to add extra antifoul / and take your beloved for a mid season wash down - or three! Otherwise use the boat more and have less problems / leave it in a marina! (one benefit they will curiously not advertise as a paliative to the pain casued by their mooring rates!)

Peter Gibbs

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[PeterGibbs]

I have tried most of the antifoul paints over the years and I conclude that other factors discriminate more than the brand used, or the number of coats administered.

If your boat is on swing mooring for most of the season, preferably on an east coast river with plenty of fertiliser and pig effluent washing down into it, you are going to get a nice fine growth whatever you put on - there simply is not enough ablation from a 1 kn tide twice a day. A friend of mine uses copious quantities on his hull on the Deben and is still disappointed - that's why he now takes off for the continent for 10 weeks over the summer! It's not the difference in their water that makes for a cleaner hull - it's the movement!

I have had several seasons sitting in east coast marinas, where it seems to me the water moves even less than on a river, but a clean hull results - the concentration of biocide in the water is pretty lethal!

All in all, I conclude, enjoy your swing river mooring, and hope its cheap. because it will cost you a chunk of the savings to add extra antifoul / and take your beloved for a mid season wash down - or three! Otherwise use the boat more and have less problems / leave it in a marina! (one benefit they will curiously not advertise as a paliative to the pain caused by their mooring rates!)

Peter Gibbs

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[ianwright]

Re: Marina based boats and boats on moorings.

Bad form to crow, I know, but with the water in Heybridge Basin being freshish anything that grows outside the lock dies inside . The cheapest AF you can find will do.

IanW

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[Neil_M]

Re: Marina based boats and boats on moorings.

You're absolutely right. Have had similar problems this year on a swinging mooring on the Deben, whereas in previous years in marinas (Neptune, Ipswich & Titchmarsh, Walton) hardly any growth was experienced. Down in part to the lack of flow there but also possibly the grey mullet (I think) which constantly fed on any weed. Suspect the level of nitrates from fertiliser running off sandy farmland into the river may also have something to do with it.

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[Evadne]

I think you're right, Peter. In Chichester harbour this year, based on end-of-season boat speed, fouling may have been less heavy on my swinging mooring in the west of the harbour than in previous years. Moorings on the other side (where there is some sewage discharge) may well have fared differently, and I'd expect marinas or enclosed basins to warm up more, possibly fouling more heavily. All I really want is to compare like with like, which in the end is boats in a creek like ours, or any one boat from one year to the next. Reliable data is hard to come by, and antifouling paint supposedly changes its formulation every year.
I stopped antifouling the prop and started polishing it, and there is no more fouling than before, probably less. The evidence for lanolin, from what Parahandy and others have said, is less clear.
I did read once that delaying launching her in until after April will reduce the fouling as the first flush of barnacle larvae will have settled by then, but I can't say it's an effect I've noticed in reality. I do know that most of the barnacles are already dead when the boat is slipped, which is really annoying.


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[Chris_Robb]

Lanolin

Based in Plymouth.
So far this year the Lanoloin has worked verywell on the prop - big 3 blader. She comes out at the end of Jan so I refuse to go in the water before then to have a look. Boat speed is still well up to par, so that means the prop is still pretty clean.

The Shogun antifouling has also come up trumps this year too.



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[yoda]

Tamar river swinging mooring, 2 coats of XM 3000 erodable and still heavy growth. Not impressed!

Yoda

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[alec]

I had an interesting comparison this year.

My boat is situated on a buoy in a free flowing river and my tender is kept in a ‘dug out’ marina pontoon close by.

I used Flag antifoul on both bottoms. I would estimate that the tender antifouling was around 70% less than my river mooring. Also, the side of the tender hull that is shielded from the sun was about half less fouled than the other side.

I feel that apart from the reasons already mentioned , keeping a hull from the sun has a major effect which is more likely in a marina than on a mooring.

Fouling this year was horrendous and I am at a total loss as what to do next. Even if I had the money, there is a long waiting list for berths in the marina. I scrubbed three times but the boat still felt sluggish the whole season which tends to spoil the joy of sailing.

Is there a GM antifouling ? I want some.



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[Johnjo]

Truro River swinging mooring, Applied two coats of Micron, no fouling at all.
but plenty of slime.

Highly polished the propellor then applied Anhydrous Lanolin, Heated it with a flame gun to
melt off the excess and leave a almost transparent covering. very successful, No fouling.

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[TheBoatman]

Re: Marina based boats and boats on moorings.

Andrew
We had very heavy fouling on the Medway this year, probably for the same reasons you gave, but we scrubbed 3 times and each time it was more like slime than barnacle infestations.
One interesting thing was, I helped a friend scrub his boat which had "copperbott" and he was completely covered in barnacles and weed except where he had a repair done which had been sanded before re-application of C/bott and there wasn't a single bit of weed/barnacle on that area. Strange?

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[aod]

Haslar marina Nautix hard racing antifoul applied and then W&D to a smooth finish.

Bloody useless!

Funnily enough in past years it's been brilliant but this year I used a tine that I had left over from the previous year and I read some where that it has a shelf life so perhaps I cocked up.

Lanolin on prop. Well, tried that applied and smoothed with a heat gun and at the end of the season I decided it was an utter waste of time. Next year I will simply polish it up as much as possible and see if that helps.

Anyone want to buy a pot of Lanolin?

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