Aquacote foul release year 1 review

[wellf100]

Hi all, here's my review and findings after 1 year of using Aquacote foul release rather than traditional antifoul. I'm based in Guernsey.

As mentioned in previous threads, I got my boat ready for the season in April last year and didn't enjoy stripping off the old flaking antifoul. I saw the Aquacote article in MBY and decided to give it a a go given it's multi season claims and a price, which after discount, made it equal to the cost of priming and antifouling. Today I took the boat out of the water for the first time since May 2015 to do various jobs so I thought I would give an unbiased review of how the Aquacote has performed after the first year.....

To be clear, the product is a 'foul release' system not an antifoul. So growth will occur as it would on a bare hull, however the idea is it can be very easily wiped away or drop off at speed. The company recommend regular cleaning with a squeegee or Srubbis brush at least monthly however in reality this isn't really practical. It's easy to give the water line and transom a quick wipe over while in the water but not so easy underneath. As it's a small boat (5.2m) I just cleaned the hull by swimming around with a long handled squeegee and wiping away any growth. I did this maybe twice during the summer, the last time being in September. It took me about 15 to 20mins of swimming to clean each time... which was good exercise and free .

The underside and most of the transom were very easy to wipe clean. In between cleans just the movement through the water at 25 knots was clearly enough to knock off anything big that tried to take hold as there was never anything other than a thin layer of muck when I inspected it underwater.

Now that I have the boat out of the water and after 6 months of not being cleaned underneath at all, it's a good opportunity to see how it looks.....

Here's the underside today on dry land. You can see where the slime has wiped off from where the boat slid across the trailer rollers when I loaded it on.

after wiping some areas with squeegee

Here's a video of how easy it is to wipe clean. The surface looks pretty much good as new once cleaned. I must admit I'm pleasantly surprised as I didn't expect it to be quite so effective. All in all a good result.

However....across the year it was noticeable that it wasn't so effective around the waterline. Primarily on the stern quarters. The wispy weed that grows here proved much more stubborn and didn't wipe off so easily. I was forced to scrape it off more aggressively and regularly which was a pain.

I'm not sure whether this type of growth beats the system or if it was my poor application of a second coat of the top coat. A second coat is recommended around the waterline but the roller wasn't in great condition when I applied it and I suspected at the time that it may not cure as smoothly as the rest. Once I've got it cleaned up I will apply another layer of top coat and see if it helps this season.

I've no intention of applying another top coat layer on the rest as it all looks in perfect condition and is working very well.

Last year I avoided grounding the boat as I was concerned about damaging the top coat and reducing it's effectiveness. However I think this year I will be braver and see if grounding has an impact on it. If the surface is scuffed then I'm sure it will be effected as it relies on a super slick surface but I don't know how much impact or scuffing it take to damage it. I still have a fair bit left over in the tin and it can be touched up or re-coated at anytime so not too worried.

All in all I'm very pleased. So far it matches the manufacturers claims and there's no evidence of any degradation of the surface after a year in the water so I've no reason to disbelieve the multi year claims.

Hope this is useful!

Cheers
Rich.

p.s. I'm not connected to Aquacote in any way.

 

[rbcoomer]

Thanks for posting this, I had come across this product a few months back and did wonder if it worked! It's prompted me to send them a few questions.

I was looking at the Rib product because it's colourless and available in smaller quantities. I wondered if it was for the tubes only or hull and tubes - if the latter, it may well suit what I was looking for. I have a speedboat just under 16' and don't need a large quantity, but my other concern was the vessel being out of the water for the winter and did it degrade the product.

Up until now I've only put the boat in the water for a week or so at a time because I don't really want to antifoul, but now have an option on a Marina berth where I work and it would mean we could use the boat much more. I wouldn't however want to leave her in the water with nothing on the hull as the gel coat will discolour and performance suffer - this product looks quite appealing!

 

[longjohnsilver]

Thanks for posting this, I had come across this product a few months back and did wonder if it worked! It's prompted me to send them a few questions.

I was looking at the Rib product because it's colourless and available in smaller quantities. I wondered if it was for the tubes only or hull and tubes - if the latter, it may well suit what I was looking for. I have a speedboat just under 16' and don't need a large quantity, but my other concern was the vessel being out of the water for the winter and did it degrade the product.

Up until now I've only put the boat in the water for a week or so at a time because I don't really want to antifoul, but now have an option on a Marina berth where I work and it would mean we could use the boat much more. I wouldn't however want to leave her in the water with nothing on the hull as the gel coat will discolour and performance suffer - this product looks quite appealing!

Rob, we used to leave our rib in the water all summer with no anti fouling.. I used to scrape the barnacles off every now and again. Yes, the hull did discolour, but a quick pray with oxalic acid brought it back to brilliant white in minutes.

 

[wellf100]

Yes, I was wondering myself how difficult it actually is to clean a hull that hasn't been antifouled. (This is my first boat so no experience with or without normal antifoul)

However the growth on the outboard bracket which hasn't been treated in any way is pretty nasty and very firmly attached!

Any suggestions on what I should use on the outboard metal work?

Re the Rib coat, yes I saw that on the website and it wasn't clear to me either whether it was tubes or hull or both! FYI I used about 900ml of the base coat and top coat for my 17 footer. I had the 1 ltr kit so some left over for touching up.

No idea about any issues on long periods out of the water. I wouldn't think its a problem as its basically a silicone type coating but not certain.

As mentioned above if you ground or beach the boat I think there's a strong chance of damaging the coating as its quite soft.

One other thing I'd add is that I took the boat for a blast a few weeks ago after no action over the winter and there didn't appear to be any loss of top speed so the layer of fouling in the picture didn't seem to have much impact.

One other product I considers was Reactive Resins Copper Coat which was also in mby. It's suitable for diy application. I went with aquacote because its very easy to apply, some evidence by way of its performance on Harry Metcalfs Windy and most of all the introductory discount which meant it cost the same as traditional primer and antifoul.


Rich

 

[Nick_H]

Thanks for the detailed report. I notice that the foul release systems came out well in the recent MB&Y report, so maybe they are the future.

 

[wellf100]

I've just come in from cleaning the hull and I have to say I'm now more impressed than ever! I used a good old bucket and sponge with warm water. An hour later and the hull now looks as good as it a year ago.....








If the extra coat over the waterline works this year it'll be an A* for Aquacote!

 

[rbcoomer]

That does look pretty good! I'd be more than happy with that :encouragement: Will be interesting to see how it survives in year 2, 3 etc - reading the datasheets, they reckon 5+ years (or more). If that proves to be the case then they will surely eat into the antifoul market due to cost alone, before you factor in the environmental impact and ease of use.

 

[rbcoomer]

Rob, we used to leave our rib in the water all summer with no anti fouling.. I used to scrape the barnacles off every now and again. Yes, the hull did discolour, but a quick pray with oxalic acid brought it back to brilliant white in minutes.

Thanks John - it was also the lost of performance/extra fuel burn that made me cautious about leaving in with nothing on the hull!

 

[wellf100]

Hi - just a quick update on how the AquaCote has performed so far this season....

As mentioned in a previous post the main concern was the weed around the waterline and I planned to put another layer of topcoat over the waterline areas. I did this without issue using the leftovers in the tin from the original application last year (May 2015) and ended up with a coating I am now much happier with (I think i mentioned that i didn't apply the second coat around the waterline very well originally).

The boat has been back in the water since May and I've made more effort to give the waterline a regular clean which has solved the problem of weed growth in this area. A quick 10 minute wipe over and around the waterline every 1 or 2 weeks has done the trick and kept it nice and clean. I also had a swim around whilst anchored and gave the underside a quick wipe over a few weeks ago for the first time since it went back in the water. This took about 20mins and it cleaned up nicely as expected.

So after a season and half it's performing well especially now I am giving the waterline a regular clean. All being well I don't think I'll need to put on any more top coat for the foreseable furture. I'll continue to provide updates if anything changes or when I have the boat out of the water early next year.

Thanks,
Richard

 

[Croftie]

Would be interesting to see it at next lift out if you gave it a real good blast of speed just before lifting.

 

[wellf100]

Update after 2 years:

Hi, I took the boat out of the water a few weeks ago so I thought I'd give an update on how the Aquamarine Hull (as it's now called) foul release has done after the second year in the water.

To put it simply it's still working! Its performing exactly as it did in year 1 with no apparent loss of effectiveness. In terms of maintenance I was a bit lazy and didn't clean the underside much, in fact I only cleaned it once which was around Sept 16. However i did make sure that I kept the waterline clean by giving it a quick wipe down every few weeks. This made a big difference compared to last year and ensured the wispy waterline weed couldn't take hold.

So after cleaning the hull with a sponge and water it was as good as new. I have a few areas to touch up due to scrapes and on the transom where I'm replacing the fish finder but the process is pretty straight forward (sand off the finish coat back to base, abraid with 120 grit, ensure it's clean then apply 2 coats of base and then a coat of finish coat overlapping original).

Here's some video footage of how it looked. You can see there's no hanging fouling of any type just the more stubborn slime and crusty stuff. A blast at 25 knots doesn't appear to be able to remove this layer but it's easy to wipe off by hand. So I remain very happy with how it's going and expect much the same in year 3.

cheers

 

[Bouba]

That is very impressive

 

[jfm]

wellf, many thanks, but I'm not quite getting it. The weed/barnacle stuff grows, and this product makes it easy to wipe off. You still have to wipe it off though, and merely driving the boat at 20 knots doesn't achieve that - it has to be mechanically wiped.

So until you lift the boat you have a rough hull with all the speed loss and fuel burn. I just cannot see how that is better than a paint that keeps the underside smooth the whole time, even if you have to repaint it annually or biannually.

sorry if I'm being thick and missing something!

 

[Bigplumbs]

wellf, many thanks, but I'm not quite getting it. The weed/barnacle stuff grows, and this product makes it easy to wipe off. You still have to wipe it off though, and merely driving the boat at 20 knots doesn't achieve that - it has to be mechanically wiped.

So until you lift the boat you have a rough hull with all the speed loss and fuel burn. I just cannot see how that is better than a paint that keeps the underside smooth the whole time, even if you have to repaint it annually or biannually.

sorry if I'm being thick and missing something!

Better for the enviroment

 

[rbcoomer]

Doesn't need painting every year either.

 

[Bandit]

I would tend to concur with JFM and to also add the fact that should one wish to return to traditional antifouling then before you can apply antifouling you have to fully remove every last trace of Aquacote which would not be an easy job.

 

[Bigplumbs]

I fear this will be the direction we will be forced into by those in the green party and similar

 

[Momac]

Another paint manufacturer indicates foul release is intended for cargo ships that are under way the majority of the time.
Could it be, in this case, the fouling that remains is so thin it has no significant impact on speed or fuel consumption?

 

[Hurricane]

wellf, many thanks, but I'm not quite getting it. The weed/barnacle stuff grows, and this product makes it easy to wipe off. You still have to wipe it off though, and merely driving the boat at 20 knots doesn't achieve that - it has to be mechanically wiped.

So until you lift the boat you have a rough hull with all the speed loss and fuel burn. I just cannot see how that is better than a paint that keeps the underside smooth the whole time, even if you have to repaint it annually or biannually.

sorry if I'm being thick and missing something!

I think that the trick, JFM, is going to be when it is used on the props.
I think this is the stuff that Jez has applied this year to his props in SC where barnacle growth is high.
I understand that his initial tests have been encouraging but we will need to see how a whole season "pans out"

 

[julians]

Im with jfm on this, if it needs a scrub to clean the growth off then its no good for me. It seems to me that ths product just makes the scrubbing less hard work.