Coppercoat

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pappaecho

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In September 2010, we coated Pepsi with 4 coats of Gelshield 200, having filled the pits in the gelcoat caused by bad layup.
Following instructions from Coppercoat, we selected day in March to apply the last coat of Gelshield 200, which was applied in dry conditions with a temperature of 14 degreesC
The following day, we mixed 5 coats of coppercoat, and applied it to the fresh Gelshield, again in dry conditions with a temperature of 14 degress rising to 17 degrees in the afternoon.
The hull was an even burnished gold colour. The boat was put afloat in June, by which time the colour of the hull had changed to a "virdigris" green colour.

We scrubbed the boat on Tuesday and here are the pictures of the result.
When I invested £1000 in coppercoat, I knew there were varying results, and took a gamble. I should have put the money on Dobbin at the 3.30 at Newmarket
 
How did she look after pressure washing? It's quite possible that the Coppercoat is fine, but needs burnishing (with a nylon pan scourer) to expose some fresh copper. So long as the coating is adhering well, then all is not lost...

Rob.
 
pappaecho said:
In September 2010, we coated Pepsi with 4 coats of Gelshield 200, having filled the pits in the gelcoat caused by bad layup.
Following instructions from Coppercoat, we selected day in March to apply the last coat of Gelshield 200, which was applied in dry conditions with a temperature of 14 degreesC
The following day, we mixed 5 coats of coppercoat, and applied it to the fresh Gelshield, again in dry conditions with a temperature of 14 degress rising to 17 degrees in the afternoon.
The hull was an even burnished gold colour. The boat was put afloat in June, by which time the colour of the hull had changed to a "virdigris" green colour.

We scrubbed the boat on Tuesday and here are the pictures of the result.
When I invested £1000 in coppercoat, I knew there were varying results, and took a gamble. I should have put the money on Dobbin at the 3.30 at Newmarket
Click to expand...

All is not lost- Coppercoat users sometimes report that the initial use is not very effective and that after lightly abrading the surface it comes good. I think you should give it a try.
 
Odd that. I have had coppercoat for three seasons now and a completely different experience to yourself. For me it has been excellent.

Where do you keep your boat? Is it in a high fouling area, and has the boat been stationary for a long time? Does it sit on mud or remain afloat.

When you applied the coppercoat did you mix it in small batches at a time and have someone constantly stirring the mixed material to stop the copper powder settling.

Really odd this. There must be some reason for the wide difference of results.
 
Picture of my bottom, after a year afloat and a pressure wash. Coppercoat professionally applied.

bottom.jpg
 
The Lazy Kipper said:
What did it look like before the pressure wash? Hardly a helpful comparison :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Mine after a year afloat had a little slime which wiped off ( literally) with a car washing sponge. Not even pressure wash needed

There's something odd here. Common sense says that coppercoat would have gone out of business years ago if the performance was normally even a bit like the OP has experienced.
 
The bits that aren't in the water normally on the OP's post look perhaps slightly less turquoise than twisters bottom ( :) ) but apart from that the lack of efficacy would appear to be somewhat strange!

There has to be some reasonable explanation for what can only be described as a complete failure of the anti-fouling capacity
 
Pepsi is in Portsmouth harbour on a swinging mooring and had moderate use. In fairness some areas were just slime, but other areas very badly infested.

My other boat an Evasion ketch had 2 coats of Blakes Cruising antifoul, and the degree of growth after 12 months was slight, again in same harbour under same conditions.

We intend as last resort to abrade the hull in May. Interestingly we applied some old antifoul to the props and rudder and they were clean as a whistle.

According to Coppercoat, the epoxy is water soluble and erodes, exposing the copper. I can see little evidence of this, though when we sanded a trial area, copper coloured epoxy quickly appeared.
 
This is how a boat using Coppercoat should look like fresh out the ogin:

IMG_1713.jpg


Something that may be worth investigating, I think Gel Shield is solvent based, was 24 hours (?) long enough for all the solvents to evaporate? It may, just maybe that if they hadn't when the Coppercoat was applied that solvent leaching through the Coppercoat have stopped it working.
 
galadriel said:
This is how a boat using Coppercoat should look like fresh out the ogin:

IMG_1713.jpg


Something that may be worth investigating, I think Gel Shield is solvent based, was 24 hours (?) long enough for all the solvents to evaporate? It may, just maybe that if they hadn't when the Coppercoat was applied that solvent leaching through the Coppercoat have stopped it working.
Click to expand...

I was told exactly that by Coppercoat and this was the reason I did not apply "InterProtect" prior to CopperCoat.
 
Coppercoat seems to be the ultimate Marmite - you either love it or hate it.

One of our locals had it professionally applied - no good -abrade -no good -reapply -no good -abrade again -no good- etc- etc. You will find his thread here somewhere.

Others find it perfect - no apparent reason for the differences!
 
pappaecho said:
In September 2010, we coated Pepsi with 4 coats of Gelshield 200, having filled the pits in the gelcoat caused by bad layup.
Following instructions from Coppercoat, we selected day in March to apply the last coat of Gelshield 200, which was applied in dry conditions with a temperature of 14 degreesC
The following day, we mixed 5 coats of coppercoat, and applied it to the fresh Gelshield, again in dry conditions with a temperature of 14 degress rising to 17 degrees in the afternoon.
The hull was an even burnished gold colour. The boat was put afloat in June, by which time the colour of the hull had changed to a "virdigris" green colour.

We scrubbed the boat on Tuesday and here are the pictures of the result.
When I invested £1000 in coppercoat, I knew there were varying results, and took a gamble. I should have put the money on Dobbin at the 3.30 at Newmarket
Click to expand...

You should not have applied the coppercoat the day after gelshield 200. Gelshield 200 is only 45% solids there rest is solvent and has to go somewhere - so you will get solvent entrapment.
You could have used gelshield plus, or AMC sell a solvent free epoxy which is cheaper than gelshield and can (in fact must) be overcoated the next day.

If is not fair to criticise coppercoat when you quite clearly didn't apply it according to the manufacturers guidelines.

The solvent entrapment will probably have caused micro bubbling, each little bubble a place for fouling to start.

Where's the boat? If it's near to me I'll come and have a look.
 
In a telephone conversation I was specifically told to use the regime which was applied. We applied 4 coats in September 2010, and the final coat in March 2011 as instructed.
I was specifically told that the final epoxy coat had to be fresh.
From memory the temperature was 16-17 degrees C when it was applied, and the surface was dry and hard the following day.

If there were free solvents available, and these would cause microporosity, then I do not understand why I was told use that regime, when the fifith coat could have been applied in September 2010.

If abrading does not work, I will apply conventional antifoul.

As other posters have commented, some work and some dont. This is the experience at Gosport Boatyard , and there does not seem to be any logic
 
Just realised that we did not treat the thruster tunnel with gelshield 200. We also forgot to apply the final coat of Gelshield on the stern section,which means the epoxy was 6 months old!
Both were treated with Coppercoat but were very badly fouled, which probably eliminates any solvent effects
 
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