Chilli powder antifoul

[atelford]

Ive heard a few people in various clubs and forums suggesting mixing in a bit of chilli powder to the antifoul while applying it. While I can understand the theory behind it, does anyone know if it works well or is a waste of time... will it not stain the fibreglass or maybe even damage it ? Also along the same lines I was also told never to antifoul my NASA paddlewheel, I cant see why not as it is just a plastic wheel and the old one was antifouled. Surely its better than letting the beasties grow inside it. I can take it out and clean but prefer not to do this as the stopping cap can easily be threaded if Im rushing to put it on and off.

 

[Pye_End]

I tried it and thought that it made a difference. Didn't try a controlled experiement, but fouling after 2 years in the water was fairly minimul.

However, next time I would use a sauce rather than powder. In spite of the powder being pretty fine. Because of this and the impact on hull speed I would not add powder again.

 

[tjbrace]

I used it last year - no scrubs - no barnacles - some grass around the waterline boat came out very clean. I will be using it again this year.
It could be that last year was light fouling generally but previous years boat was almost unusable without scrubbing. I did use a lot of powder though - 6 mugs full for a tin of 3 litres. It can only be used with red or black paint as the colour of the powder is very strong .

 

[ccscott49]

I use it, and will be using it again this time, next month in fact. I am in the meddy and it definitely works down there, I use a kilo bag, to 20 litres of antifoul. I use 40 litres for 2 full coats and extra on waterline and rudder/bow, basically I just keep putting it on until theres none left. Doesnt do any good in the tin!
Like the idea of sauce instead of powder, but wouldnt want to put a gallon of water into my antifoul.

 

[bendyone]

I used 1kg in 3l of cheap af. It worked for me in Calais.

 

[pampas]

Tried it, /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif good for 2 months then small passengers appeared toward Sept well and trully covered, never had grass before bottom like a lawn, scraped off and not tried since. To be fair I think the Barnies were late arriving that year but in 20 years of using the same mooring I never had grass,must like it hot. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[nigelhudson]

[ QUOTE ]
I used it last year - no scrubs - no barnacles - some grass around the waterline boat came out very clean. I will be using it again this year.
It could be that last year was light fouling generally but previous years boat was almost unusable without scrubbing. I did use a lot of powder though - 6 mugs full for a tin of 3 litres. It can only be used with red or black paint as the colour of the powder is very strong .

[/ QUOTE ]Same experience at lower concentration but boat left in for two seasons - March 06 - October 07. Did have to scrub round the waterline a couple of times - I wonder if inhibiting the fauna allows the flora to flourish?

 

[ex-Gladys]

A friend (Argus of this parish) swears by it. He steeps the chilli powder in thinners, and then adds that to the a/f

 

[QuestGirl]

We used lots of chilli powder in our cheap antifoul 2 years ago for our MacGregor (drying mud berth, on trailer in winter) and it was still working ok last season. Not many barnacles but much more slimy growth which was relatively easy to scrub off compared with little beasties that cement themselves to your hull !

Didn't bother with it this year as I used pale antifoul and bought (hopefully!) better quality stuff as our cat will stay in year-round on the same tidal mud berth. Will be interesting to see the difference if any in beasties / greenery on the hulls, especially as I now have two of the things to deal with each year /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[davies]

The trouble is that fouling fluctuates greatly from year to year even in a single environment and with the same antifouling regime, so "improved" performance may just be part of this variation. The only way to be sure is to do a controlled test (panels antifouled in different ways then suspended at identical depths and orientations for the same time). I recall seeing the results of a fairly limited study in either PBO or YM over ten years ago that showed inclusion of large amounts of chilli powder in the antifoul to be totally ineffective; a more recent report from an owner in the US drew the same conclusion. My guess is that chilli could only work on organisms with a fairly sophisticated nervous system, as the active ingredient (capsaicin) seems (in vertebrates) to act on a receptor called TRPV1 that is involved in integrating a variety of mainly painful stimuli in the sensory nerves. Exposure to capsaicin eventually desensitises and may even destroy the nerve cells affected. Like most proteins, we can find related or ancestral proteins in simpler organisms, but there seems to be no evidence that these proteins are involved in pain sensitivity or aversive behaviour. The chances that capsaicin would repel even quite sophisticated arthropods such as barnacles are therefore doubtful, while the organisms which cause slime formation are mainly very simple animals without nervous systems or else plants where chilli would appear to be a pretty unlikely inhibitor. I'm not an expert in this field so my impression based on reading of a sample of the recent literature may be wrong. However, I shall stick to copper-based antifoul for the present.

 

[gjgm]

I also came across something suggesting that there was no proof it really worked. I think the article was on DIY a/foulings.. point being that you can mix up some lethal hooch that the law would prevent a manufacturer doing, so it wasnt always fair to criticise.