Coppercoat type antifoul

[cgrpr]

Before people jump down my throat about using the search facility, I apologise for adding another thread about copper antifoul, but I have used the search facility and haven't really found the answers to my questions.

Our boat, which was showing signs of osmosis, is currently being re-epoxied. We have been considering getting some kind of coppercoat type antifoul applied, and this would seem the perfect time to do it. The boat is kept on the East coast of England (Levington Marina on the River Orwell), so the first questions are, how well does this antifoul perform in our area, and who are the best people in the area to get to apply it?

I have read lots of complaints in previous threads from people who seem to think that once they have coppercoat, they can leave their boat in the water without having to do any maintenance on the hull and it won't get fouled. We are under no such illusions, and don't expect it to perform any better than any other antifoul in terms of not getting fouled in the first place, but we are under the impression that it is just easier to remove the fouling with this kind of anitfoul, is this actually true? We don't mind having to scrub/jet wash the boat occasionally and will still be lifting it out of the water every couple of years.

Basically, from what I have read about coppercoat type antifouls, it seems to me that the main difference between coppercoat and normal antifoul is that you don't have to re-apply it every year, but it still requires the scrubbing and cleaning that any other antifoul would. With this in mind, we want to know whether it is cost effective to spend a lot of money in one go to get some kind of coppercoat applied which will last for 10years or more, as opposed to spending a fair amount of money (for International Optima? or equivalent) each year on normal antifoul that only works for a year?

Finally, does anyone know anything about C-guard Liquid Copper (www.c-guard.co.uk), as their product seems incredibly cheap (£70.50 for 3kg of the stuff), assuming you only apply the same amount of it as you would normal antifoul?

 

[tcm]

I understood that the main idea of copper additives was the creation of copper oxides which repel barnacles. If you don't have barnacles or other custacea, then there's not a lot of point having a copperish hull. The only other advantage of copper (sheathing) in the olden days was it resisted the massive worms burrowing into the wood, not usually a prob with grp boats, ahem.

I would (and do) use a black antifoul, as this is darker than the surrounding water so the hull "disappears" from view once in the water - although it looks weird on dry land. I'd use a very easily self-eroding type of antifoul, with loads of coats around the waterline so you can easily brush up the waterline where lots of weed/grass grows in summer.

 

[snowleopard]

the stuff works fine in uk waters but wasn't much good in the tropics. the biggest problem we have with it is that it is starting to come off in places. i always recommend that you have it applied professionally so you have some comeback if it peels.

a pressure wash to remove slime at the end of the season is all the maintenance required though a rub with a scouring pad to expose fresh copper is also advised by the makers.

 

[Sans Bateau]

I have just been down the same path as you. We are epoxying the hull so as to preserve it because it is very dry. As we have had the hull grit blasted to apply the epoxy we were faced with similar questions that you are. Rather than be influanced by hear say, I have the advantage of knowing someone who has Coppercoat on his boat. it was applied two years ago to his then brand new Hanse 371. He chose Coppercoat because it had worked well on his previous boat. As it costs so much I don't think he would make the same mistake twice if it were no good.

I understand that we will need to presure wash the bottom of the boat once maybe twice a year to remove slim, we can do this on the grid, rather than suffer the cost of hauling out. It is our intention to stay in the water for 12 month sailing as well as saveing on the haul out and annual ritual of antifouling.

Another issue to be considered, I have heard that in the near future the scraping off of antifoul will only be allowed in certain areas of yards, as all the old materials have to be recovered and disposed of correctly, this will give the marinas another reason to raise an invoice! Also, and I am sure someone can enlighten me on this, in the future erroding antifouling is to become banned on environmental grounds.

 

[jamesjermain]

A call to the YM office might elicit some worthwhile information. Some tests have been done recently by members of staff.

The thing to remember about all these copper saturated epoxy treatments is that the metalic copper oxidises over a season and needs refreshing by rubbing down with a fine grade wet-or-dry or scourer. It seems conditions during application are critical: temperature and humidity must be right

 

[Sans Bateau]

OK James who do we talk to?

 

[TheBoatman]

James
Your comment about rubbing down is important! It seems that this stuff doesn't work very well until you have rubbed it down. A friend of mine applied it to a new boat, then had to do a small repair which needed rubbing down. When the boat was lifted from the water the first time the complete hull was fouled except the part he had rubbed down which was totally free of any fouling?

 

[Sans Bateau]

My friend with the 371 was telling me that when he was getting quotes to have the Coppercoat applied, the one 'profesional' organisation claimed that there was no need to degrease the hull! They claimed that the sanding to key the surface would be enough. It also transpired that they were going to apply the Coppercoat outside. This was to be done in January! Any problems with Coppercoat could come from just this one yard.

We are going to apply the epoxy and the coppercoat ourselves. Don't forget Titanic was built by professionals, the Ark was built by amateurs.

 

[zephyrsailor]

i have 2 boats with this stuff on. getting it to stick to the keel is by far the hardest and you need a good keel primer. it does need sanding which in my oppinion is marginally more tedious than antifouling! it works as well as regular antifoul. it does need reasonable warm dry weather to apply of it goes gooey. and one of our boats went to portugal and back even just that far south it started to go weedy. it does seem to work fine in cold water but if your considering going further afield i'd stick to antifoul.
if you want to discuss coppercoat further please feel free to pm me and i'll give you my phone number.

 

[jamesjermain]

PM me.

 

[kds]

You are absolutely right !
I launched within 3 days of the final coating and suffered fouling in a marina berth within 2 months.
I spoke to the company who blamed the fact that I had not sanded the coating before launching.
I lifted her out and sanded the entire bottom - with success and no more fouling yet,
But .......

- AWFUL WARNING !

The dust from the copper coating stains gel-coat to a coppery hue and it is iINDELLIBLE ! Several boats within 20 metres had dreadful problems. My own stern deck is permanently stained a coppery hue. Unfortunately, not evenly !
Ken