Aqua Marine coating - Antifouling coatings for hulls and running gear.

N

Neeves

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 Nov 2011
Messages
14,075
Location
Sydney, Australia.
Visit site
Does anyone know of the 'antifouling' coating marketed by the company

https://www.aquamarineuk.com

I had a quick glance but I could find no technical data on the product, other than it was fantastic!

Looking at the images the coating looks like a silicone type, as per Prop Speed and Prop Gold, it has that 'silky' look to it (but maybe its just a glossy finish). The prose suggests it performs like a silicone coating is meant to perform - as its wipe clean

But if it is silicone, a la Prop Speed - it would be extortionate - and have other attributes not mentioned on the website.

Jonathan
 
I know of a couple of boats that have applied it but havent got any feedback yet. Both in thier first season and I'm not even sure if one was launched. One of the attributes I noted was that you need 7 (?) knots to clear any fouling, bit of an ask for a smaller yacht thats got fouled. I dont believe theres anything in the mix to deter fouling, its just slippery.
 
I think when it first came out about 6 boats in Plymouth had it applied but mine is the only boat that still has it on..... The issue is you just can't go fast enough on pretty much any sailing boat to get the growth to release - I think 7 knots is wildly optimistic it's more likely a sustained 10 knots for a period of time to remove the fouling. The yard even tried it on their own rib that's left in the water and it didn't work particularly well on that.

The reason it works on my boat is that we race and therefore have the boat dry sailed so the boat is pressure washed every week and for us it works better than the traditional hard racing anti fouls because after it has been pressure washed it really does go back to being completely clean where with the teflon based anti fouls would occasionally need a manual scrub to get the last few bits off.

The other scenario's I imagine that it would work well for are big planing MOBO's that are used regularly and say if you were living aboard somewhere warm and were happy to dive and give the boat a quick scrub every few weeks as it does release very easily.
 
Ingwe said:
The reason it works on my boat is that we race and therefore have the boat dry sailed so the boat is pressure washed every week and for us it works better than the traditional hard racing anti fouls because after it has been pressure washed it really does go back to being completely clean where with the teflon based anti fouls would occasionally need a manual scrub to get the last few bits off.
Click to expand...

We used to race and dry sail - and we stripped the old AF off and sanded and polished the hull. We had no need for AF at all. We ent into he water on Friday night and were lifted Sunday night or Monday mornings and washed won before placing in the cradle.

What is the advantage of applying Aqua Marine's coating - over dry sailing an untreated hull?

Jonathan
 
Neeves said:
We used to race and dry sail - and we stripped the old AF off and sanded and polished the hull. We had no need for AF at all. We ent into he water on Friday night and were lifted Sunday night or Monday mornings and washed won before placing in the cradle.

What is the advantage of applying Aqua Marine's coating - over dry sailing an untreated hull?

Jonathan
Click to expand...

It's twofold for us - we are based in Plymouth yacht haven so in Fastnet years the yard stops doing all dry berthing for 3 weeks because the race village is sat where our cradles are normally so we do need some form of antifouling for those periods.

The other thing is simple convenience, my previous boat was also dry sailed and we had no other coating apart from hullcoat / polish and even with the yard cleaning the hull each week after about six to eight weeks it would either need another polish and or treatment with oxalic acid to remove staining, where touch wood with the aqua coat on everything comes off when the yard washes the boat each week, which has meant I haven't even touched the hull in the past three years.
 
It seems you have found one niche for Aqua Cote - I had wonder if the coating was soft and would be damaged from hitting 'things' in the water or whether the cradle itself, or slings, caused damage. I'm assuming it must be more robust than I feared or you would have made mention.

Many larger racing yachts, really large 60' and bigger, though they might meet the speed criteria are simply not going to be used sufficiently frequently - though if you lift, wash and drop back in it might suffice. For lessor mortals with cold water it does not seem quite so attractive :(

Jonathan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top