Between tide anti foul

SteveGorst

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Rather than lifting out with a crane I am going to do the anti foul against the harbour wall this year. I have been reading an old post on the forum about this and apparently the international rep said that it wasn't feasible because the solvents wouldn't have time to fully evaporate and this would affect the adhesion and performance. So what I am thinking is wash and anti foul the boat on day 1. Leave it against the wall while the tide comes in and goes out again. About 4 hours of submersion. Day 2 = time for the solvents to evaporate off and polish the top sides. At the end of day 2 put it back on the mooring. Now the weather is nice and warm the paint should dry quickly. One year I had terrible results trying this on a cold day in one day. I may as well have put fertiliser on the boat.

What I am wondering is will the brief period of submersion stop the solvents from evaporating. I am thinking of using Hempel Cruising performer.
 
I have done this during one complete low tide on the shingle bank of the river.
Boat was thick with weed and especially barnacles, bought from a marina and brought back to my river, very slowly.
Managed to scrape and paint on thick coat of cheap antifoul, Flag I think.
Certainly seemed to work for rest of the season upon inspection.
 
We have antifouled between tides several times without noticing a problem.

When we antifoul in a cradle we paint the squares beneath the pads about 10 minutes before we hit the water. I have never seen more fouling there than on the rest of the hull painted days earlier.
 
My wife and I used to antifoul a 60' wooden MFV between tides for nearly 30 years. For the first few years, we would let her dry out on her side on a shingle beach. This gave very good access, and made it very easy, but of course it took two days, and when the boat was heeled over, but not dried out, it was difficult to do any other work aboard.

Later years, we dried out against a wall, with a sort of pallet device between the wall, and a fender. This meant that we could get both sides done in the one tide. Admittedly, it was really hard work, but there was absolutely no problem with the antifouling. Most boats antifoul the parts normally covered by the cradle pads, minutes before launching.

We now have a much smaller boat, which winters ashore, and antifouling is a much more relaxed procedure.
 
It's worth reading the product data sheets for different antifoulings- there are big differences between drying/immersion times. The old Cruiser Uno was far and away the best, its replacement has much longer times.

I usually dry out the boat and do all the scraping down, then come back the following day and give the hull a brief rinse down with a pressure washer (fed from fresh water from the boat's tanks). This washes the salt off, along with any crud that has come in on the tide overnight. A sunny day with a breeze will see the hull drying off in minutes, so that you can start painting on the AF. If possible, position the boat so that you can get sun on both sides as the day progresses (easy enough with a bilge keeler or with legs, not so easy against a wall!)

I sometimes do the whole operation in one day, but only if I have a helper.
 
If using hempel cruising performer I had very poor results last year on a mooring in Southampton Water over centimetre of weed and shell despite attempts to scrub in less than 12 months.But goes on easily and would dry very fast in today's weather
 
Have frequently jet washed and then anti-fouled in one tide, using all brands of A/F (whatever was around and cheap both hard and soft ) and probably during every single month in the year.
Rarely have been ashore for A/F unless something was broken.
Never had a problem.
 
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