Coppercoat

[Dougie_the_Mate]

Having just read a raft of testimonials for coppercoat anti-fouling a question which comes to mind is how much it costs - the flyer gives no indication nor do the witnesses. What would a ballpark figure be for a Westerley Centaur?

 

[Tranona]

Depends on how much preparation you need to do. The actual coating is often the smallest part of the overall cost. Normally you have to strip the hull clean (blasting is usual but can be done manually), epoxy coat then apply the coppercoat. You could be looking at £2.5k+ to have it done professionally, but clearly savings if you do some or all of the work yourself. Why not phone the makers and ask?

 

[Sandy]

Westerley Centaur?

You could be looking at £2.5k+ to have it done professionally, but clearly savings if you do some or all of the work yourself. Why not phone the makers and ask?

How long to you intend keeping the boat?

Last year I spent £40 on antifoul and she came out clean. Lets assume it is £1,000 if you do it yourself = 25 years worth of antifoul, I hope to last 25 more years.

 

[Euphonyx]

Did it last year. boat is a few feet bigger than a Centaur but not as many keels! prob about the same surface area. An awful lot of preparation involved. The Coppercoat man insisted that every tiny scrap of antifoul was removed. doing this on an old boat reveals all the previous bodges ever done. These have to be put right, especially at hull/keel. Them the keel! The keel was the worst bit. Had to be taken right back to bare metal (lead) primed and fared and primed and primed. The hull had to be framed and shrink wrapped and heaters put in the "tent" because fluctuations in temperature and rain both ruin the job and most importantly the temp has to be kept above 13 degrees ( i did mine in March last year and the temp outside was low for the time of year). After all that the job itself cost €2300. The tent/shrinkwrap cost €350. If I had paid for all the prep work I'd say it would have cost 1500 to 2000 as it was backbreaking. IF i dont have to do anything except hose it down for 10 years it will have been worth it but a year later my arm is still dead... the jury is out. You can skip the epoxy coat because the coppercoat is itself an epoxy coat. I didnt. Good luck

 

[geem]

How long to you intend keeping the boat?

Last year I spent £40 on antifoul and she came out clean. Lets assume it is £1,000 if you do it yourself = 25 years worth of antifoul, I hope to last 25 more years.

Cost me £2500 for a 44 ft boat including blasting off old antifouling. Job was done professionally.
Just done the first lift out after 12 months and not a barnacle in site. A little slime, easily blasted off.
If you don't want to scrape off old antifouling, re coat and you like a smooth low friction bottom then Coppercoat may be an option.

 

[sailaboutvic]

We also did it last year 12 mts yacht 1000 Euros in copper coat the work was done by us , we think it was well worth doing two reason .one within four years it will pay for it self , no lifting every year no antifouling paint , yes it has to be activated ever so often , but we can do that in the warm water of the Med .
And Two , the way things are going more and more yards are not letting you do your own antifouling and soon or later the only option will be to let the yard do the work for you , and that's really going to bump up the cost .
Just as an example here in Sicily a lift out and in plus a presser wash and a week on the hard is 800 Euros and if they antifouling and supple the paint it over 1500 Euros , at that price I am already pounds or should I say Euros in pounds .

 

[MYStargazer]

It's just water-based epoxy and copper powder. Make your own for a fraction of the cost...

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...-It%92s-Not-Coppercoat!&p=3705387#post3705387

 

[Dougie_the_Mate]

How long to you intend keeping the boat?

Last year I spent £40 on antifoul and she came out clean. Lets assume it is £1,000 if you do it yourself = 25 years worth of antifoul, I hope to last 25 more years.

I was just curious - she comes out of the water on Friday for a clean. This is the first year she has over-wintered in a marina. In previous years the level of muck varied - the Gareloch was not the cleanest place and if the season meant not a lot of use greater efforts were required to clean her bottom.

I have always been assiduous in my efforts to keep her clean, but advancing years and all that mean that I look forward less each spring to the task. Hopefully she won't be too bad this time. We'll see. Thanks to all for the advice.

 

[Tranona]

It's just water-based epoxy and copper powder. Make your own for a fraction of the cost...

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...-It%92s-Not-Coppercoat!&p=3705387#post3705387

Not sure why you keep on quoting this thread as you obviously have not read it. NOBODY reports doing what you say as a DIY exercise. It is just a discussion on whether it is possible with the consensus that it is NOT!

 

[MYStargazer]

Not sure why you keep on quoting this thread as you obviously have not read it. NOBODY reports doing what you say as a DIY exercise. It is just a discussion on whether it is possible with the consensus that it is NOT!

Calm down, dear!

In fact, I've read all the relevant threads. No - the consensus is that ordinary epoxy plus copper powder won't work as the powder is embedded and becomes useless, but that water-based epoxy allows a continual front of copper to be exposed to the seawater.

 

[Daydream believer]

My 31 ft Hanse cost £ 1050-00 doing myself & using local sand blasting firm (£ 250-00 cash) inc Marina fee to alter the cradle struts
However, Copper coat does not work for me!!!!
I have done 3 boats - first a Stella with Copper bot-- Useless- Wessex resins were so embarrassed they gave me another complete lot of material to do again
Second my Hanse with copper coat
Finally my squib with copper tec
We have several squibs in our club with professionally applied copper coat & ours with copper tec coating is marginally better -only needing to be hauled & scrubbed every 6 weeks.

My Hanse used to cost £ 200-00 in antifoul every year & the labour was horrible. Build up over the years was bad as well
With copper coat i do little in the winter- it is jetwashed when lifted
then mid season it has to be lifted for a quick wash @ £ 300-00, because by then it is so bad on performance (ie when motoring for instance the stern sinks 12 inches & I can hardly hold the tiller against the prop wash as the boat squats & engine struggles to push the boat along)

However, £300-00 with no effort from me is better than £200-00 plus my labour
Plus for a good part of the season the hull is reasonably clean. It helps if i can keep sailing. Leaving it too long in the marina is not good
But to be honest copper coat is not as good at preventing fouling as Blakes Ocean Performer was, Just easier on me

 

[wiggy]

In the process of getting mine organised now. Boat is Beneteau First 31.7, I'm hand scraping and will either apply myself over Easter (£450 in materials) or get it applied for me, +£600. Quote for total job including stripping hull was £2200.

 

[Daydream believer]

Remember you have to get it paper white before applying copper coat
When i had the keel sandblasted I applied the epoxy primer within 1 hour.
The current BSS for doing this commercially on steel is around 20 minutes max after blasting

 

[geem]

Calm down, dear!

In fact, I've read all the relevant threads. No - the consensus is that ordinary epoxy plus copper powder won't work as the powder is embedded and becomes useless, but that water-based epoxy allows a continual front of copper to be exposed to the seawater.

We had a system called copper plus. It was just as you describe. It didn't work the first time so they supplied another batch for free. It was moderately successful second time. We now have coppercoat and it is far more successful.

 

[Twister_Ken]

How long to you intend keeping the boat?

Last year I spent £40 on antifoul and she came out clean. Lets assume it is £1,000 if you do it yourself = 25 years worth of antifoul, I hope to last 25 more years.

Unless you're drying on posts or a wall, you also have to cost in the lift, block-off and relaunch to your annual £40.

 

[Sandy]

Unless you're drying on posts or a wall, you also have to cost in the lift, block-off and relaunch to your annual £40.

True, I love my bildge keels.

 

[geem]

my Coppercoat had nothing other than slime on it after 12 months in the water. It performs for me as well as any anti-fouling I have used in the past

 

[dave_gibsea]

I had my Gibsea76 Coppercoated a few years ago, my boat is about the same size as yours.. The materials were about £450 plus I paid a guy to remove the old anti-fouling and apply he coppercoat. I would definitely recommend getting it applied by a professional, it's not difficult to apply but its not easy to get a good finish. The cost of the preparation will vary depending on how hard it is to remove the old anti-fouling, our guy used a sharp scraper which i think was much better than having the hull sand blasted as it does less damage to the gel coat .

The three seasons we have had this have been a bit disappointing to be honest. We are in Portsmouth and fouling is quite high. The coppercoat does not seem to me to perform as well as the usual eroding antifouling we have used in the past (usually Balkes Tiger). I am thinking of over coating with conventional anti-fouling but I'll give it another season.

One thing I have been told is that it's not good on a drying mooring and not so good for bilge keelers but i don't have first-hand experience of either.

Would I use it again? Probably not. Its almost as much work cleaning it to get the last remnants of growth off as rubbing down prior to the yearly anti-fouling and I resent the lack of performance at the end of the season with the growth on the hull (OK conventional anti-fouling is not a lot better but I believe in my circumstances it is slightly better).

 

[BlueChip]

Coppercoat didn't work at all for me for four seasons in Portsmouth Harbour, but after moving to Sutton Harbour Plymouth the difference is miraculous.
We dried out against a wall last year and after 18 months in the water without a scrub the thin layer of slime peeled off like sunburnt skin, we used a PTFE bacon slice as a sharp edge and just ran it along the hull, the slime came off in long strips.
It took about 90 minutes to clean and re-abrade a 37' hull, if I'd had my camera I would have made a video.

I'd prefer it not to pick up the slime and this definitely makes a big difference to performance but Coppercoat has worked as well as any antifoul I have used and now after seven seasons, financially I am about even, without including my time.