Comments on Coppercoat

[Twister_Ken]

For info:

My boat was professionally Coppercoated from new in 2010.

She stays in the water full time, apart from a week ashore every year.

My experience is that Coppercoat slowly collects a layer of black slime, with a small amount of weed growing along the waterline, on top of the slime.

Previous years, I've had a diver scrub towards the end of the season. This year (2013/2014) I didn't.

She was lifted on Friday. There was a layer of slime 1 or 2mm thick over the hull. Green filament weed at the water line, and a 'beard' of weed under the knuckle of the bow. No barnacles, tube worms or other signs of animal life apart from a jelly like 'thing' attached to the depth transducer (which is antifouled, not Coppercoated). The waterline weed I put down to higher light levels and maybe a bit more solar warmth at the water's surface. The weed was worse on the port bow, which is the bit that gets most sunlight, and for longest, on her usual berth.

Pressure washing very quickly took everything back to 'clean'.

From last year I knew there was some physical damage to the Coppercoat, along the bottom few cm of the keel (mudbank, Thorney Channel, Chichester) and about halfway down the starboard side of the rudder where it seems a line had scraped it, before being shrugged off, or chopped by the line cutter ahead of the prop.

I had bought a half kilo patch-up kit from the Coppercoat people at LIBS. Patching took about two hours of non-continuous work (rubbing down, mixing, applying four coats wet-on-tacky). It took much longer to clean up the prop and sail drive, re-prime and re-coat them (International Prop-o-Dev primer and antifoul). I should also report that the Prop-o-Dev kept the prop much cleaner than previous years when I relied on just polishing it up and coating it with lanolin.

Altogether I had the hull sorted and she could have gone back in the following day.

The previous boat (smaller) would have required at least a couple of days of solid work scraping back, preparing and painting: yards of masking tape, and five or six litres of antifouling. What's more it wouldn't have lasted a season with so little fouling.

To say I'm pleased with Coppercoat would an understatement. Cleaner, time-saving, less annual expenditure on paint and potions.

Pix attached:

1 The beard.

2. The black slime

3. Black slime with a 'clean' bit in the centre, achieved by running my thumbnail with no real pressure through the slime.

Hope that's helpful to anyone considering giving up on the annual antifouling ritual.

 

[Stemar]

It seems fine on deep water moorings, but is a waste of money on mud berths like mine (so, it seems, is everything else!). To be fair, they don't recommend it for drying moorings, and I only did Jissel because a friend had done a couple of big mobos and had enough left over for my 24-footer, not his 35-footer, so it only cost me my labour.

One tip. When starting to apply it, make sure SWMBO isn't inside the boat. I said to make sure she didn't let any water out of the galley sink drain so, just as I started to paint, out came the water. I mopped it up so it all looked dry, but I've now got a copper-free patch just under the drain.

 

[Aardee]

Thanks Ken - Having just bought a boat that was Coppercoated in 2012, I look forward to equally impressive results

 

[oldvarnish]

My experience is that Coppercoat slowly collects a layer of black slime, with a small amount of weed growing along the waterline, on top of the slime.

There was a layer of slime 1 or 2mm thick over the hull. Green filament weed at the water line, and a 'beard' of weed under the knuckle of the bow. No barnacles, tube worms or other signs of animal life

That's exactly my experience. I went on the scrubbing grid on the Dart last week and it took me all of 20 mins to wash the slime off. Very happy person. I now consider myself retired from antifouling ever again.

 

[Nicholas123]

I need a solution for a mud berth,yesterdays scrubbing nearly killed me.

 

[mrming]

Encouraging to see. We've just done ours as she's a swing keeler and difficult to antifoul. We race and usually scrub off every 3 weeks so I'm really just looking for a good hard wearing paint finish with some anitfouling properties that I can leave alone. Fingers crossed the Coppercoat will do the job.

 

[TimfromMersea]

Doesn't work for everyone! My boat was done once on a DIY basis, then again by a highly regarded (and highly charging!) yard, after a total failure to work in any way as an anti fouling agent and much negotiation with the suppliers.

It never worked at all and even a monthly scrub could not keep it clean. It fouled up in two weeks in the summer. Eventually negotiated a settlement with the suppliers and antifouled over it.

Just thought that it was important to put the other point of view. I hope that you all have more success with it than I did.

 

[fastjedi]

DIY .... 2010/11. Just about recovered ROI in three seasons.
Similar results. Very pleased so far

 

[Goldie]

It never worked at all and even a monthly scrub could not keep it clean. It fouled up in two weeks in the summer. Eventually negotiated a settlement with the suppliers and antifouled over it.

The owner of the yacht in the berth next to mine has just done the same (antiflouled, I don't know what if any agreement was reached with the manufacturers). That coppercoat was applied from new by ther UK builder.

 

[Birdseye]

after 3 seasons use of a professionally applied coating, my experience mirrors ( boat in Falmouth) that of the first poster. some light weed and slime. no critters. mid season wipe with a car spnge is good - no need to use a pressure washer.

however, like other epoxy coats it doesnt stick at all well to a lead keel and an y grounding of the bottom of the keel cracks the coat, lets water in and you get the same problem that comes with almost every non ferrous and paint - the corrosion of the metal works under the edge of the coating and lifts it off.important to say here that this problem applies to every paint coat on lead. if you doubt that ask international.

re-coating is not that easy either. it requires a sound undercoat which if not solvent free epoxy need curing for a few days. it then needs dry weather and a minimum of 10C to go on right. on the underside of the keel that means leaving the boat in slings for that long which is why my boat now has the bottom 2 inches of the keel in conventional antifoul.

any dont think mine is an odd example. every coppercoated boat in the yard had some problem where the coat had grounded either like mine on a bowman 40 or a bit worse on a southerly.

so yes it is easier to live with than conventional and if I were cleaning off and epoxying a boat for the first time I would apply coppercoat. particularly if it didnt have a lead keel.

but it isnt a panacea.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

This is technically hearsay, but when I was thinking of doing Coppercoat, I had a conversation with another boat owner, who had a friend who's had a bad experience. He was saying that it hadn't worked for his friend. However, he then said that it looked as if it had been applied correctly - it was a nice copper colour. That isn't right - working coppercoat (as shown on Twister_Ken's photos) should be a green, verdigris looking colour. If it still looks copper coloured, then the copper isn't being eroded to give the antifouling properties expected. I suspect that the last coat either hadn't been stirred well enough, or it had been applied in thicker layers (AMC recommend many THIN layers). I think that in that case, the only solution would be to seriously abrade the surface.

 

[mrming]

This is technically hearsay, but when I was thinking of doing Coppercoat, I had a conversation with another boat owner, who had a friend who's had a bad experience. He was saying that it hadn't worked for his friend. However, he then said that it looked as if it had been applied correctly - it was a nice copper colour. That isn't right - working coppercoat (as shown on Twister_Ken's photos) should be a green, verdigris looking colour. If it still looks copper coloured, then the copper isn't being eroded to give the antifouling properties expected. I suspect that the last coat either hadn't been stirred well enough, or it had been applied in thicker layers (AMC recommend many THIN layers). I think that in that case, the only solution would be to seriously abrade the surface.

As we're in a high fouling area I plan to lightly abrade ours with a scotch brite pad to get it started.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

As we're in a high fouling area I plan to lightly abrade ours with a scotch brite pad to get it started.

We're doing ours next weekend! But Coppercoat generally has a good reputation on the Clyde. Hopefully, my wife and I can do a good enough job. The only annoyance is that we'll have to leave the area under the support pads for another time; it takes 3 days to harden sufficiently to move the pads, and we don't have that long.

 

[mrming]

We're doing ours next weekend! But Coppercoat generally has a good reputation on the Clyde. Hopefully, my wife and I can do a good enough job. The only annoyance is that we'll have to leave the area under the support pads for another time; it takes 3 days to harden sufficiently to move the pads, and we don't have that long.

We built some wooden frames and lashed them across the decks, then supported the boat on her keel. It was a faff but worth it to get unobstructed access to the hull. We did the prep ourselves (I still have nightmares) but had a professional apply the paint. We did do the keel and rudder ourselves and providing the surface is very fair you will find it easy to apply. We got a particularly nice result on the rudder.

 

[Seven Spades]

A word of warning Ken.

Normally I have the boat lifted and jetted off and she is ashore for about 4-6 weeks before re-launch. During this time I give her a light rub over. Last year I didn't do that I had her lifted in the slings and jetted off and re-launched. It was a disaster, it was as though I had just cut the lawn and the grass re-grew very quickly. I think the boat needs to come out so that the roots of the slime die before re-launch, either that or the light abrading with wet and dry has removed the roots.

So tempting as it looks, do not just jet off and re-launch because I had to haver her re-lifted about 6 weeks later to do the job properly.

 

[scottie]

After seven years with an anual lift last thing one evening and back first thing next morning I would say it does what it says on the tin all it takes is a power wash and it's ready to go!

 

[AntarcticPilot]

We built some wooden frames and lashed them across the decks, then supported the boat on her keel. It was a faff but worth it to get unobstructed access to the hull. We did the prep ourselves (I still have nightmares) but had a professional apply the paint. We did do the keel and rudder ourselves and providing the surface is very fair you will find it easy to apply. We got a particularly nice result on the rudder.

Not an option in our case - the marina insists on all propping etc. being done by them, and boats being in cradles. They are prepared to use acro-props to temporarily move the support pads, but that's it. Given accidents that have happened elsewhere (e.g. Clyde_wanderer, whose boat was badly damaged by an adjacent boat falling over!) from boats being improperly propped, I guess that's reasonable. Not suggesting yours wasn't fine, but you can see why the marina takes the stance it does; not everyone is careful or competent.

We're doing it the other way round - professional preparation, but we're doing the application. The hull is in good shape, so I expect it to go on fairly easily, and I've taken AMC's advice about rollers and thinning.

PS, How did you do the bottom of the keel? I can see how to do everything else, but having her in slings for the time required for the stuff to cure isn't an option!

 

[Twister_Ken]

A word of warning Ken.

Normally I have the boat lifted and jetted off and she is ashore for about 4-6 weeks before re-launch. During this time I give her a light rub over. Last year I didn't do that I had her lifted in the slings and jetted off and re-launched. It was a disaster, it was as though I have just the lawn and the grass re-grew very quickly. I think the boat needs to come out so that the roots of the slime die before re-launch, either that or the light abrading with wet and dry has removed the roots.

So tempting as it looks, do not just jet off and re-launch because I had to haver her re-lifted about 6 weeks later to do the job properly.

Thanks for that. She's actually out for a week (as normal) so anything that relies on being immersed in seawater for its vitality should be well and truly deceased by then.

 

[mrming]

Not an option in our case - the marina insists on all propping etc. being done by them, and boats being in cradles. They are prepared to use acro-props to temporarily move the support pads, but that's it. Given accidents that have happened elsewhere (e.g. Clyde_wanderer, whose boat was badly damaged by an adjacent boat falling over!) from boats being improperly propped, I guess that's reasonable. Not suggesting yours wasn't fine, but you can see why the marina takes the stance it does; not everyone is careful or competent.

We're doing it the other way round - professional preparation, but we're doing the application. The hull is in good shape, so I expect it to go on fairly easily, and I've taken AMC's advice about rollers and thinning.

PS, How did you do the bottom of the keel? I can see how to do everything else, but having her in slings for the time required for the stuff to cure isn't an option!

Ours is in a shed where professional boat builders are working, and we've designed / over-engineered timber supports which have met with their approval (but ultimately are our responsibility). The boat is positioned such that in the very unlikely event that it did fall over it would not damage any other property.

The boat is a swing keeler, so we took the keel out, suspended it from an A-frame by the hole where the spindle goes through, and worked on it seperately. We then painted the strip of the hull which is not accessible when the boat is resting on the keel, before putting the keel back in and propping the boat up. A major palaver!

 

[tcm]

This is technically hearsay, but when I was thinking of doing Coppercoat, I had a conversation with another boat owner, who had a friend who's had a bad experience. He was saying that it hadn't worked for his friend. However, he then said that it looked as if it had been applied correctly - it was a nice copper colour. That isn't right - working coppercoat (as shown on Twister_Ken's photos) should be a green, verdigris looking colour. If it still looks copper coloured, then the copper isn't being eroded to give the antifouling properties expected. I suspect that the last coat either hadn't been stirred well enough, or it had been applied in thicker layers (AMC recommend many THIN layers). I think that in that case, the only solution would be to seriously abrade the surface.

\
You say "the only solution is to seriously abrade the surface" - but afaik that's what yer supposed to do anyway. Mine was in a series of fast rollered coats as per video instructions, and it was put in copper-coloured and stayed copper coloured for quite some time. The folwing year it was clean and slightly-green, but i abreaded it back a bit to get rid of the surface spattery look that you can see on ken's boat.... then sprayed it with various acid things oxalic etc, and it went in gloriously green, all fine. I think it may have been a bit faster with a sanded hull.

In less nutritious (for fish) waters such as med and atlantic, i think the stuff works even better - no slime. In the med where some marinas can halve a boat's speed in a few months, it's fab. Seems to go greener faster if you either get it started with acid, or praps knect to the shorepower, i dunno.

Either way it should be hard as heck, and painting the bottom of a boat with a few layers of epoxy has gotta be a good idea anyway, really.