Best prop Antifoul system?

[KAL]

Boat all blasted and being coppercoated, so I have a pristine prop primed and ready for treatment.

Can forumites advise on the very best Antifoul system to use?

I've heard Velox is good. Have tried Trilux, udder ointment and crossing fingers, but none of them have been at all effective.

OK - floodgates are now open....take cover!

 

[cmedsailor]

For me the best thing to do is to clean and polish it as much as possible. This simply because it's easy afterwards to keep it clean with a quick dive and a wet paper. But I live in the Med and that's probably different.
In the first years of owing my boat I used to antifoul the prop. It lasted longer (probably 4-5 months) but was very difficult afterwards to clean it because of the paint. The last 5 years which I simply polish it, it's only 10 minutes job to dive and clean it with a wet paper or something similar.

 

[ostra4]

I can comment on the velox plus antifoul applied to the saildrive and prop of our boat .Launched in early April last year in Greek waters and hauled mid October , the saildrive and prop remained completely clear of any fouling , did what it says on the rather expensive tin and I will be using same before launch this year.We don't sail or motor everyday and the boat didn't move for four weeks whilst we came home .

 

[robertj]

I have tried all sorts to try and keep the prop free of fouling. Lanolin, grease, trilux, antifouling but this year another test will be prop speed.
Weird stuff to the touch after drying and rather expensive too!

 

[johnphilip]

Fit an outboard and tilt the prop clear of the water?

 

[vyv_cox]

You may have seen my photos of Velox over the past two seasons, posted a couple of times. I have yet to have any fouling whatsoever on the prop and last year added the P-bracket to the items successfully treated. Superb stuff that works very well for me in the Med. I have tried the high polish method but found it totally ineffective against the type of tubeworm we need to deal with.

 

[J Neeves]

We have tried Trilux, Velox, Prop Speed and Prop Gold, some odd nano tech stuff from Germany, lanolin and simply polishing. We have tried this by using one coating on one prop and another on the other, we have a cat. We have been running trials for a number of years. The best have been Prop Speed and Prop Gold and Velox. We cannot really tell the difference between them. But Velox comes out ahead as its 'easier' to apply yourself.

However many of the reports on successful prop treatment are from vessels that might only do a 6 month season with the other 6 up on the hard. We would confirm that Velox, Prop Speed and Prop Gold are all good for 6 months, maybe 9 - but 12 months is a big ask. We wonder if we were to wipe with a nylon kitchen scrubber used gently and regularly to ensure nothing adheres might improve performance and produce a more reliable 12 month life. This latter is our programme for the next 10 months with Prop Gold and Velox.

We have used these successful treatments on both the prop and sail drive.

Prop fouling is very laceration dependent (and varies in the same location - year by year).

Much depends on how much it costs, if you do it yourself then we have found Velox 'better' as at the end of the life you might not need to grind right back, and whether you can get the various treatments.

Water temperatures are upper teens in the winter to around mid 20's in the summer.

But whatever you choose - report back with your experiences.

Jonathan

But like most 'painting' its all about preparation - you need to grind or abrade to ensure you get a good key.

 

[vyv_cox]

Yesterday I took a new propeller from my UK motorsailer to be copper plated. The thread from an Oz sailor earlier in the year convinced me that it is worth a try. It is an expensive solution, so not for all, but in some circumstances, including mine, could be worthwhile. It will be a long time before I can report back as the boat is not expected to hit the water until late this year.

 

[J Neeves]

Vyv,

You say copper plating is expensive but if you choose Prop Speed or Prop Gold you are 'forced' to use a 'professional' applicator (I joined the august band and have a certificate to prove it!) and we professionals need to produce a return on our intensive training and the product is not cheap and neither is Velox. Moreover you have the expense annually. Can you put the word 'expensive' into context - or might you prefer to wait until you have seen the results?

Jonathan

 

[vyv_cox]

Vyv,

You say copper plating is expensive but if you choose Prop Speed or Prop Gold you are 'forced' to use a 'professional' applicator (I joined the august band and have a certificate to prove it!) and we professionals need to produce a return on our intensive training and the product is not cheap and neither is Velox. Moreover you have the expense annually. Can you put the word 'expensive' into context - or might you prefer to wait until you have seen the results?

Jonathan

It's an 18 inch, three-bladed prop. They have quoted me £90 plus VAT (20%). I hope to get many years from it. For comparison my tin of Velox cost me €30 and after three seasons there is more than half of it left. However, I did not buy their primer, which I think would have been the same price.

 

[J Neeves]

Thanks Vyv,

I would pay Stg90 to copper plate my prop if it would 'sensibly' last 12 months at which point I'd only need to invest in Brasso and a little time.

It will be interesting to hear how your experiment performs - as you look at that much lighter wallet console yourself that there are many anxiously wishing you all success!

Jonathan

 

[Norman_E]

Copper plate will oxidise, and the copper oxide is the antifouling agent, so treating it with Brasso will probably be counter productive. Just let it remain green.

 

[Boo2]

Yesterday I took a new propeller from my UK motorsailer to be copper plated. The thread from an Oz sailor earlier in the year convinced me that it is worth a try. It is an expensive solution, so not for all, but in some circumstances, including mine, could be worthwhile. It will be a long time before I can report back as the boat is not expected to hit the water until late this year.

Why not just dip the prop in something like citric acid overnight ? I did that to clean off the barney cules last time and it went a very fetching shade of pink. It doesn't go deep enough to do any damage judging by the fact that brasso gets it off quite easily but presumeably pure copper is copper whatever the source and if you dezincify brass / mag bronze that's what you get ?

Boo2

 

[Dipper]

Boat all blasted and being coppercoated, so I have a pristine prop primed and ready for treatment.

Can forumites advise on the very best Antifoul system to use?

I've heard Velox is good. Have tried Trilux, udder ointment and crossing fingers, but none of them have been at all effective.

OK - floodgates are now open....take cover!

I have used Trilux with moderate success but following on from an earlier thread I have applied Velox this year. I bought a 500ml tin of undercoat and a 500ml tin of primer and sold 1/3 shares in it to two other club members. I hope it works or they will want their money back.

I didn't need so much primer. I reckon there's enough left to do another 40 propellers so the smaller tin would have been more than adequate. There's also enough left of the paint to treat our three propellers again next year. One is a folding two blade saildrive, one a fixed two blade and one a three blade.

 

[vyv_cox]

Why not just dip the prop in something like citric acid overnight ? I did that to clean off the barney cules last time and it went a very fetching shade of pink. It doesn't go deep enough to do any damage judging by the fact that brasso gets it off quite easily but presumeably pure copper is copper whatever the source and if you dezincify brass / mag bronze that's what you get ?

Boo2

I'm not giving away too much information just now as ultimately this may turn into a YM article. Suffice to say that the copper that remains after dezincification (although I doubt that citric acid causes that because I know that hydrochloric acid has a negligible effect on brass) is extremely porous and has no mechanical strength, which is why fittings break when it happens. The copper plating technique that is being used on my prop is hard and should provide excellent resistance to erosion and cavitation.

I cannot find a tank big enough to float the boat in so dipping it in citric acid is not an option. The idea is that the boat will rarely come out of the water so removing the prop to clean it is not an option.

 

[KAL]

Yesterday I took a new propeller from my UK motorsailer to be copper plated. The thread from an Oz sailor earlier in the year convinced me that it is worth a try. It is an expensive solution, so not for all, but in some circumstances, including mine, could be worthwhile. It will be a long time before I can report back as the boat is not expected to hit the water until late this year.

I wish I could just slap multicoats of Coppercoat onto the prop, cutter and shaft, which would last as long as the treatment on the hull is supposed to.

Do you think Coppercoat on the shaft, etc., would do the trick for that?

Looks like I will go for an order of Velox then. The prop is very well abraded after the Farrow blast. Do you recommend using the primer as well, or would it be OK to go straight for the paint itself?

 

[Ian_Edwards]

I've tried, doing nothing, Prop-O-Drev and polishing with Autosol, both Prop-O-Drev and polishing with Autosol work, and I can't really tell the difference, so I'm using Autosol, because it's less hassle to do.

The boat is keep on mooring on the West Coast of Scotland, for 6 summer months and ashore for the winter.

This is the prop as it came out of the water last October, it was polished before it went in in March.

 

[Dipper]

Do you recommend using the primer as well, or would it be OK to go straight for the paint itself?

According to the instructions, you definitely need an etching primer. From an earlier thread, I believe Vyv said that he used a Hammerite etching primer rather then the Velox one. Maybe he will confirm or deny later.

 

[vyv_cox]

According to the instructions, you definitely need an etching primer. From an earlier thread, I believe Vyv said that he used a Hammerite etching primer rather then the Velox one. Maybe he will confirm or deny later.

Yes, that is the case. When I first bought Velox I had a full tin of Hammerite Special Metals primer, so I used that. It was the solvent based version, now superseded by a water-based version that I have never used. Velox seems to even have problems adhering to the primer so I doubt very much that it would adhere without one.

I have applied Coppercoat to my P-bracket without a primer but its adhesion was very poor. I have repeated that with Hammerite primer plus Velox, successful. This year I will do the same for the prop shaft, prop and P-bracket.

 

[Boo2]

Yes, that is the case. When I first bought Velox I had a full tin of Hammerite Special Metals primer, so I used that. It was the solvent based version, now superseded by a water-based version that I have never used. Velox seems to even have problems adhering to the primer so I doubt very much that it would adhere without one.

+1. I applied Velox + their primer to my prop and p bracket last year and there were signs of chipping even after 12 months on the hard. This year the engine was run up and the gearbpx engaged on the hard to test and the prop opening knocked a bit off the Velox off, so it is a fairly fragile coating at best. It remains to be seen how it will do in the water...

I have applied Coppercoat to my P-bracket without a primer but its adhesion was very poor. I have repeated that with Hammerite primer plus Velox, successful. This year I will do the same for the prop shaft, prop and P-bracket.

I didn't think to do my prop shaft, will have to try that next year.

Boo2