Copper Coat and Older Hulls - Is Blistering A Risk?

[OldBawley]

Our Coppercoat is 10 years now. Extremely happy with the result. Our boat is wood with a fibreglass sheeting. Some call it a death cloth, I call it a composite boat. Old wooden boats don’t like been lifted on land, and a liveaboard boat is shitty on the hard.

We had 10 years of staying in the water, just a quick clean snorkelling in spring.

The only place where the Coppercoat layer is getting thin is on the waterline, probably caused by to much cleaning.

I put on a bit more than the advised thickness of Coppercoat, maybe good for some more years.

 

[RobbieW]

12 years on, much of that in the water and about 2/3 in the Med, there is blistering. Mostly small bubbles but quite extensive. A 6 week lift out in Lisbon in the summer of 2018 reduced the bubbling almost completely, except on the rudder, but 3 years in UK waters and its mostly come back. I need to lift out and see whats going on under the suface.

See post from 2012, Copper Coat and Older Hulls - Is Blistering A Risk?. The hull is a 1984 Rival

 

[Tranona]

Unlikely you will ever get that when there are so many variables involved, so few (relatively) boats treated, few boats staying in long term ownership and lack of systematic data collection and analysis.

So, nothing much changes. The points made in post#4 are still a good summary. On the other hand it is quite possible that the number of hulls with potential osmosis likely to be Coppercoated has declined in the last 10 years because the cost is high relative to the falling value of the boats. Remember osmosis ceased in general to be an issue in hulls moulded from the early 1990s. A more common issue now is adhesion to iron keels rather than to GRP hulls.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I was just hoping by now that it wasn't an opinion thing and that there was settled knowledge.

I think that the general experience is that if the underlying hull is sound, properly prepared and has had a chance to dry out, blistering isn't an issue. Of course, there's always a counter-example, but the vast majority of Coppercoat users simply don't experience problems in that regard.

Something people forget is that AS AN ANTIFOUL, Coppercoat is no better or worse than conventional antifouls. Its virtue is its longevity and the fact that it provides a barrier coat. But it isn't a magic formula that will cause all sea-life within range to turn its toes up and die!

 

[Deleted member 36384]

I still use Cruiser Uno, or whatever it’s now called. Two years between coats, boat in the water all the time except for a brief period ashore every second year. About 3 of the larger tins, 2 full coats.

Back then other stuff took priority and now it is not something I would do.