Coppercoat. Is it worth it ?

[Elessar]

Our yard told us that too. Abrade every 3-4 years, they thought, or less if you’re not fouling badly.

If performance starts tailing off you can abrade. Don’t try and fix it until it’s broken though and they sort of said this. Three years a bit soon I reckon more like six. Not every year for sure.

 

[Zing]

Don’t abrade it! It doesn’t say that in the manual. The internet made that up!!!
You are doing needless work and wearing it out.

They actually do recommend doing it after the initial application and if performance drops off:
Abrading Coppercoat. – Coppercoat Antifoul

 

[Elessar]

They actually do recommend doing it after the initial application and if performance drops off:
Abrading Coppercoat. – Coppercoat Antifoul

100% agree - I wasn’t clear.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

If performance starts tailing off you can abrade. Don’t try and fix it until it’s broken though and they sort of said this. Three years a bit soon I reckon more like six. Not every year for sure.

I shall bear that in mind. 10 days and counting since launch. I don't think we need to abrade again yet!

 

[Cariadco]

There's several CC'd boats, here in Gouvia, who's owners are constantly stating that their CC doesn't work!! After the first year, I wasn't too impressed with my CC working correctly, and after reading everything I could re: why poor performance, I decided on the Wet&Dry abrading regime. Now my CC works great, as I said previously, just a bit of slime, if I haven't been out for say a month. No worms, Barnacles or anything serious. I'm convinced it's the annual Wet&Dry abrading that's exposing the copper and letting it work, as it should.. Maybe it's a Corfu thing? anyways, I intend to carry on (it takes me and the missus, 2 hours to do it) and I'll see in time, if the coating starts to get a little thin.

 

[Zing]

There's several CC'd boats, here in Gouvia, who's owners are constantly stating that their CC doesn't work!! After the first year, I wasn't too impressed with my CC working correctly, and after reading everything I could re: why poor performance, I decided on the Wet&Dry abrading regime. Now my CC works great, as I said previously, just a bit of slime, if I haven't been out for say a month. No worms, Barnacles or anything serious. I'm convinced it's the annual Wet&Dry abrading that's exposing the copper and letting it work, as it should.. Maybe it's a Corfu thing? anyways, I intend to carry on (it takes me and the missus, 2 hours to do it) and I'll see in time, if the coating starts to get a little thin.

What grit paper do you use?

 

[Elessar]

There's several CC'd boats, here in Gouvia, who's owners are constantly stating that their CC doesn't work!! After the first year, I wasn't too impressed with my CC working correctly, and after reading everything I could re: why poor performance, I decided on the Wet&Dry abrading regime. Now my CC works great, as I said previously, just a bit of slime, if I haven't been out for say a month. No worms, Barnacles or anything serious. I'm convinced it's the annual Wet&Dry abrading that's exposing the copper and letting it work, as it should.. Maybe it's a Corfu thing? anyways, I intend to carry on (it takes me and the missus, 2 hours to do it) and I'll see in time, if the coating starts to get a little thin.

Stop sanding and it will carry on working now you’ve got it to corrode. Read what I said above about warm water and the first year.

 

[GHA]

Some experience here about burnishing >

 

[geem]

There's several CC'd boats, here in Gouvia, who's owners are constantly stating that their CC doesn't work!! After the first year, I wasn't too impressed with my CC working correctly, and after reading everything I could re: why poor performance, I decided on the Wet&Dry abrading regime. Now my CC works great, as I said previously, just a bit of slime, if I haven't been out for say a month. No worms, Barnacles or anything serious. I'm convinced it's the annual Wet&Dry abrading that's exposing the copper and letting it work, as it should.. Maybe it's a Corfu thing? anyways, I intend to carry on (it takes me and the missus, 2 hours to do it) and I'll see in time, if the coating starts to get a little thin.

We did redid ours 4 years ago in Curacao. It's not been abraded since but it due for an abrade when we get back. We scrub the bottom with our hookah every month. It's easy to do when it's just slime. If we leave it to 6 weeks it's a bigger job. It takes an hour for each of us. Wife doing the keel and deep part of the hull with hookah and me doing the bits I can reach with the snorkel and mask.

 

[Lightwave395]

I think the medina is bad, so I won’t be surprised if ours grows a beard. But at least it scrubs off. We had to scrub so hard and so many times on our previous antifoul that the yard barely had any stripping to do, we’d scrubbed her back to bare epoxy primer.

I confess I smiled when I read your earlier post - I would never have associated the word 'pleasant' with the act of being immersed in the medina !

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I confess I smiled when I read your earlier post - I would never have associated the word 'pleasant' with the act of being immersed in the medina medina !

I’d normally scrub in Totland, Bembridge or studland, from choice. The Medina is light years ahead of how it was, but you’re right, it’s not a prime swimming spot.

 

[Cariadco]

What grit paper do you use?

P180.

 

[TiggerToo]

YES, but as @Tranona says make sure you get it done in a yard that has a good reputation. I had mine done mid summer at Mylor in Cornwall who spray it on in a shed.

While Coppercoat say its a DIY job I don't consider it to be.

SNAP: except we had it done in winter - but they did it in a heated shed.

Very professional job, with no complaints from me about it. I know of another boat which had it done in the same yard: some of it fell off after a season, and the yard replaced it under warranty. They say that you judge a business from how they deal with problems: in this case Mylor gets a 5* in my book.

I realise Mylor may be a bit far for you, but I am sure there are equivalent, serious yards in France too.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Delete posted twice

 

[sailaboutvic]

If I may add and we done two boats,
first forget all the calculations, CC UK will tell you how much you need just tell them the boat size and make.
Next DONT add thiners .
two of us easily managed to do a 42 foot boat , one mixing one applying , in early spring in the Med I found by the time I got around both side it was just about ready fir the next coat .
The first boat we did was a dufour 385 and we did plain to just do half of it one day but once we started we soon realise we could mange to do the whole boat.
We left out the rudder , Keel which was done the same time as doing the pad patches .
We slightly abrasive it after three days .

Edited
I should had also say mixing a litre at a time is manageable for one person to apply while the other keep mixing it to stop the copper from settling at the bottom.
Also when we did our first boat we was parniod about keeping it dry for five days,The advise given by Ewin at CC UK was if by pushing you finger nail into it doesn't leave a mark then it ready to be launch.

 

[geem]

Don’t abrade it! It doesn’t say that in the manual. The internet made that up!!!
You are doing needless work and wearing it out.

The American version of the CC website says abrade. The first time ours wasn't abraded and it didn't work well until we abraded it. The second time we did the CC ourselves and we abraded it. Four years later and it's ready for another abrading.

 

[GHA]

Next DONT add thiners .

Only applied to one boat so far but on the (warm) day just a splash thinners in each batch made all the difference.
2 people - one each side, as soon as a coat from stern to bow was applied the stern was ready to start another.

 

[geem]

Only applied to one boat so far but on the (warm) day just a splash thinners in each batch made all the difference.
2 people - one each side, as soon as a coat from stern to bow was applied the stern was ready for another.

We did ours in Curacao when temperatures we well over 30degC. It was impossible without thinning the CC.

 

[Yngmar]

You definitely need to add thinner in warm weather! While in the UK we only used a tiny bit, we did the area around the new cockpit drains in July in Greece (>30°C) and needed to thin a lot or just get syrup

 

[sailaboutvic]

You definitely need to add thinner in warm weather! While in the UK we only used a tiny bit, we did the area around the new cockpit drains in July in Greece (>30°C) and needed to thin a lot or just get syrup

As you know we don't both boats in the Med, one in Greece and one in siracusa, didn't need thinners