Cheapo antifoul, is it worth it?

BarryH

BarryH

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One of the last big'ish jobs was to apply the antifoul. Being on a tight'ish budget I did't want to spend the earth. After taliking to a few people I went for Flag A/F. I'm going on a drying mooring that is, supposidly, in low fouling area. Speaking with a few "experts" I was informed to go for the cheapo stuff.
Spent ages scrapping off at least 15 years worth of old crappy stuff. Smoothed over the hull with wet and dry leaving it a good smooth base to work from. Went into the chandlers and realised that I didn't really know what colour I wanted. Silly I know as you won't see it anyway!
Was black before. That was obviously slapped over the luna landsacape stuff to make it look tidier to sell. I knew I didn't want black. Went for a nice light blue. Hah! Light blue my arse, try battleship grey....
Does this cheapo stuff go lighter once its been in the water and will it go patchy as I've seen on other boats? It was only 30 quid for 2.5ltrs. Not the usual 65 quid I used to pay for the last boat, but that went on nice and easily unlike the cream cheese I've just slathered all over my bottom.......
 
This is supposidly light blue. It doesn't bear any resemblace to the colour depicted on the tin...... Camera was also on auto white balance, looks bluer in the picture than it does in the flesh.

picture.php
 
mmm flag mmm toolstation mmm gaelforce
Last year I got a great deal on International Uno from Gaelforce.
This year I bought their own brand which is reflagged Flag.
Remains to be seen how it works but paint job was really blotchy-doesnt show so doesnt matter but couldnt make it out.
Dark blue ended up looking like a pair of faded jeans with lighter and darker patches.
 
I used Flag last year and am very impressed with it. The boat is on a drying berth and I have convinced myself that, after a while, any anti-foul paint stops working as it becomes clogged by compacted mud. A totally unscientific view but...

Anyway, I bought it because it was cheap and I can't see the point in spending more. On haul-out, the hull was cleaner than it had been in the past when I had used more expensive products.

A little-birdy tells me that Flag is almost identical to Blakes Tiger (Hempel?) but has a higher copper content.
 
I've never used Flag but with antifoulings you get what you pay for. Copper oxide, the main biocide is quite a strong (brown) pigment so making the paint a different colour means using expensive pigments. Making it look the same colour before and after immersion is more expensive again. Chances are it will develop a better colour after immersion but as you're on a drying mooring that may also affect it.
Nowadays the biocide packages are supplied to all the paint manufacturers by just a few companies. They just add the copper oxide, pigments, resins etc. Quite possible the Flag biocide is similar to Tiger, all depends how much each company wanted to pay.
 
Apologies for hijacking this thread but you knowledgeable chaps and chapesses might be able to answer an antifoul question.

I'm in Greece (Crete actually) so we use REALLY cheap antifoul, typically we use what the fishermen use. The local "chandlers" (quote marks are intentional because it's more of a hardware store) stocks two cheap brands. Curiously the cheaper of the two is heavier than the more expensive (cheap) one.

We're assuming that the heavier one contains more copper, could that be true? Or is there anything else in antifoul that could make it heavier?

Tony Cross
 
I've used quite a few "cheaper" alternatives as well as Jotun and International.
The main difference is that the cheapies are far more difficult to put on because they're an almost-gel and unless in black, look thoroughly shabby when they are on.
Usually they work no worse and, sometimes better if you choose the one used locally, than the more expensive varieties.
When in UK, I used to swear by Jotun - but that was the FV variety, only available in "rust",and was only available in 25 litre lots. In 1990 I was paying just over £1/litre (which definitely qualifies as a cheapie). It went on a lot thicker and was far more erodable than most of the market leaders.
Effectively you have to buy a greater quantity of the cheap gel-type antifoul (about 50% more) to get the same coverage as Micron+ (now replaced by Micron Extra) so, unless you have a 35% price-reduction, it's probably not worth the price difference and extra hassle of application.
 
charles_reed said:
I've used quite a few "cheaper" alternatives as well as Jotun and International.
The main difference is that the cheapies are far more difficult to put on because they're an almost-gel and unless in black, look thoroughly shabby when they are on.
Usually they work no worse and, sometimes better if you choose the one used locally, than the more expensive varieties.
When in UK, I used to swear by Jotun - but that was the FV variety, only available in "rust",and was only available in 25 litre lots. In 1990 I was paying just over £1/litre (which definitely qualifies as a cheapie). It went on a lot thicker and was far more erodable than most of the market leaders.
Effectively you have to buy a greater quantity of the cheap gel-type antifoul (about 50% more) to get the same coverage as Micron+ (now replaced by Micron Extra) so, unless you have a 35% price-reduction, it's probably not worth the price difference and extra hassle of application.
Click to expand...
The bit about coverage makes sense because as I recall 2.5 litres of International uno did the whole of my boat plus because I was there with a 2.5 litre tin I mixed it with what I had left of the uno-anyway its in the water so too late to worry!
 
The Flag was pretty thick as a coating goes. The 2.5 ltr tin did 2 coats and was just enough left to put another smattering on the leading edges of the keels, bow and skeg/rudder. It didn't look too bad and once dried looked to be pretty uniform. Stank to high heaven though. Got quite giddy doing in between the keels.
 
little_roundtop said:
Apologies for hijacking this thread but you knowledgeable chaps and chapesses might be able to answer an antifoul question.

I'm in Greece (Crete actually) so we use REALLY cheap antifoul, typically we use what the fishermen use. The local "chandlers" (quote marks are intentional because it's more of a hardware store) stocks two cheap brands. Curiously the cheaper of the two is heavier than the more expensive (cheap) one.

We're assuming that the heavier one contains more copper, could that be true? Or is there anything else in antifoul that could make it heavier?

Tony Cross
Click to expand...

I am reliably informed that the heavier product will contain more copper.
 
After using Seago Cruising for years, the past few years have tried more expensive alternatives.
As far as I can see there's no different in application, in performance (ie stopping stuff growing), nor in how long it lasts.
So this year back to seago, and was surprised to open the tin labelled Navy Blue, to find it grey. (but used it anyway)

I don't accept that you get what you pay for based on that experience. You can pay double, for no improvement.

It might be different in the racing types of antifoul.
 
I have used XM for a while as the standard tin contains 3 litres which just oges that extra bit further. Its definitely a budget brand but has usually worked as well as anything I've used before.

However, although colours were exactly as on the tin, the red went white after a short time in the water. The blue I used as boot topping line remained okay all season. The red was not as effective as usual so when I contacted XM they seemed to think it might have been a dud batch.

So this year its back to XM and see what happens.

I always need a mid season scrub and end of season scrub to see me over the winter with the colder water whatever I use.
 
Have always had good results with a single coat of FLAG cruising, at least as good as anything that anyone else is using hereabouts.

I used white on our previous boat (which ended up a sort of purple / grey colour before it got wet, and a grey-ish beige after), and black on our current boat (because it was on offer a few years ago, and have stuck with it).

When it was out of the water this winter, the remains of the black a/foul all went a copper verdigris green, which I take as a good sign.

Tried XM cruising once and it was ****.

I couldn't care much less about the colour. tbh :)

Andy
 
Funnily enough, once with XM was enough for me too.

Something else I have recently learned is that the best colour is black and the worst is white, in terms of fouling. Something to do with the sunlight/UV, apparently. OTOH, one boat in the marina uses grey Flag and has had decent results.
 
Used FLAG last season on recommendation from another local boat owner and NEVER again!

Scattering fertiliser around the boat each week would have probably given less growth than we experienced...whe she came out at the end of last season it wasn't a case of a scrub down it was more a case of get the flymo!

I have used XM's HX3000 in the past and have put two coats on for this season...we will see!
 
Burnham Bob said:
I have used XM for a while as the standard tin contains 3 litres which just oges that extra bit further. Its definitely a budget brand but has usually worked as well as anything I've used before.

However, although colours were exactly as on the tin, the red went white after a short time in the water. The blue I used as boot topping line remained okay all season. The red was not as effective as usual so when I contacted XM they seemed to think it might have been a dud batch.

So this year its back to XM and see what happens.

I always need a mid season scrub and end of season scrub to see me over the winter with the colder water whatever I use.
Click to expand...

Just wondering if your boat remains afloat or are you on a drying berth?
 
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