MapisM
Well-Known Member
I already mentioned this in some previous thread, but just to recap, after stripping the hull to bare gelcoat at the end of last season, I decided to give CC a try.
No previous first hand experience, but considering also some gelcoat blistering which appeared after sandblasting the hull (13yo boat), particularly along the spray rails, CC seemed a very logical choice also from an economic standpoint.
In fact, after leaving the sandblasted hull (which was already pretty dry anyway) sheltered for several months, she was in ideal conditions for applying an epoxy treatment, and in this sense CC is a way of killing two birds with one stone, because eventually its cost was in the same ballpark of a gelshield treatment plus application of traditional a/f.
So, coming to the point: the boat went back in the water by mid of June, and about 10 days later we started a 1200Nm delivery trip, reaching our destination at the end of July. During that timeframe, the hull remained always very clean, but then again, the boat never stayed moored/anchored for more than 3 or 4 days in a row, so that was to be expected.
Afterward, the boat stayed moored most of the time during August (including a couple of weeks when we flew back home), and upon the few times when we went out for a swim, making just a dozen of miles max each time, and at slowish speed, I never bothered re-checking the hull.
But yesterday, while at anchor in warm and crystal clear waters, I though to have a good look underneath.
And I found several spots along the bottom with red/brownish round "bubbles", ranging from a diameter of a few mm up to 15mm max, which didn't seem bothered at all from CC, and were happily growing on it.
In a very few other spots, mostly along the bottom side of the chines, I also found some barnacles.
I didn't have any u/w camera handy, so no pics, sorry.
Now, a few thoughts:
First of all, I saw in the past this very same type of growth on other hulls (not just my previous one, but also others) treated with traditional a/f, so I suppose it would have been unrealistic to expect CC to keep the hull much cleaner.
Secondly, these red/brownish spots (apropos, do they have any specific name?) could be easily cleaned with a soft brush, leaving the underneath CC surface intact.
Last but not least, the barnacles: they were more strongly attached to the bottom compared to the above type of growth, and required a sort of plastic scraper to remove them. But again, that's nothing new vs. my previous experience with traditional a/f.
Otoh, when in the past I removed some barnacles, they always seemed to have "eaten" some of the a/f underneath. At least, after removing them, the a/f surface seemed a bit "holed" behind them, to some extent - as if they grew some roots inside it.
Now, with CC, after removing the barnacles, the surface returned as smooth as new, to the point that it was impossible to tell where the barnacle was attached.
I suppose this has something to see with the fact that CC is based on an epoxy resin, which obviously is strong enough to resist the aggression of the critters, even if they can still manage to grab the surface and stay strongly attached to it.
In turn, this gives me hope that the CC claims about its duration have a decent chance to materialize in the long run, though obviously I can't tell anything about that yet.
Anyway, I summarized this because I would be curious to hear from others who used CC if the above sounds familiar, and/or if anyone had different experiences (and if so, how).
So, over to you folks, and thanks in advance!
No previous first hand experience, but considering also some gelcoat blistering which appeared after sandblasting the hull (13yo boat), particularly along the spray rails, CC seemed a very logical choice also from an economic standpoint.
In fact, after leaving the sandblasted hull (which was already pretty dry anyway) sheltered for several months, she was in ideal conditions for applying an epoxy treatment, and in this sense CC is a way of killing two birds with one stone, because eventually its cost was in the same ballpark of a gelshield treatment plus application of traditional a/f.
So, coming to the point: the boat went back in the water by mid of June, and about 10 days later we started a 1200Nm delivery trip, reaching our destination at the end of July. During that timeframe, the hull remained always very clean, but then again, the boat never stayed moored/anchored for more than 3 or 4 days in a row, so that was to be expected.
Afterward, the boat stayed moored most of the time during August (including a couple of weeks when we flew back home), and upon the few times when we went out for a swim, making just a dozen of miles max each time, and at slowish speed, I never bothered re-checking the hull.
But yesterday, while at anchor in warm and crystal clear waters, I though to have a good look underneath.
And I found several spots along the bottom with red/brownish round "bubbles", ranging from a diameter of a few mm up to 15mm max, which didn't seem bothered at all from CC, and were happily growing on it.
In a very few other spots, mostly along the bottom side of the chines, I also found some barnacles.
I didn't have any u/w camera handy, so no pics, sorry.
Now, a few thoughts:
First of all, I saw in the past this very same type of growth on other hulls (not just my previous one, but also others) treated with traditional a/f, so I suppose it would have been unrealistic to expect CC to keep the hull much cleaner.
Secondly, these red/brownish spots (apropos, do they have any specific name?) could be easily cleaned with a soft brush, leaving the underneath CC surface intact.
Last but not least, the barnacles: they were more strongly attached to the bottom compared to the above type of growth, and required a sort of plastic scraper to remove them. But again, that's nothing new vs. my previous experience with traditional a/f.
Otoh, when in the past I removed some barnacles, they always seemed to have "eaten" some of the a/f underneath. At least, after removing them, the a/f surface seemed a bit "holed" behind them, to some extent - as if they grew some roots inside it.
Now, with CC, after removing the barnacles, the surface returned as smooth as new, to the point that it was impossible to tell where the barnacle was attached.
I suppose this has something to see with the fact that CC is based on an epoxy resin, which obviously is strong enough to resist the aggression of the critters, even if they can still manage to grab the surface and stay strongly attached to it.
In turn, this gives me hope that the CC claims about its duration have a decent chance to materialize in the long run, though obviously I can't tell anything about that yet.
Anyway, I summarized this because I would be curious to hear from others who used CC if the above sounds familiar, and/or if anyone had different experiences (and if so, how).
So, over to you folks, and thanks in advance!
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