Dirty Boats, how clean is your hull at the end of the season?

Seven Spades

Seven Spades

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I have Copper Coat and I am fed up with the slime and this year the grass is worse than ever. I have never owned the boat with antifoul so I don't know how much better or worse it is, but as it is 8 years old now I am considering changing back to antifoul. I will soon know if copper coat os better or worse than antifoul. However, I have just seen these photos on the Shamrock Quay facebook page and I am having second thoughts. They say that the boat in question has been in the water for 18 months!


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Apparently it has been in the River Itchen. I would love to see some photo's of boats being lifted after 12 months which have been antifouled so that I can compare the best in class to the worst.
 
We've got 7 year old Coppercoat on our boat. If left unused for a while it grows a bit of weed at the waterline. As soon as we go sailing, it just falls off leaving a trace of slime. Our previous boats with antifoul suffered from far heavier and well stuck fouling.

The photos above are pretty spectacular. Some sort of environmental permit should probably have been obtained prior to removing that lot.
 
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One season, Coppercoat, Brighton Marina (clean area is after pressure-wash):

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That sold me. Although the boat is berthed in the inner harbour, which has brackish water and probably less fouling.
 
We have copper coating and so far very happy with it , I don't think any thing is going to stop slime but I rather have slime then one percent of fouling that in them photos .
A very quck wale and my slime just goes .
 
Seven Spades said:
I have Copper Coat and I am fed up with the slime and this year the grass is worse than ever. I have never owned the boat with antifoul so I don't know how much better or worse it is, but as it is 8 years old now I am considering changing back to antifoul. I will soon know if copper coat os better or worse than antifoul. However, I have just seen these photos on the Shamrock Quay facebook page and I am having second thoughts. They say that the boat in question has been in the water for 18 months!


11391702_791386660978474_6688525215032297154_n.jpg


11391453_791386467645160_6770713776446960783_n.jpg


11257189_791386864311787_5261121092580494797_n.jpg


11401378_791386920978448_4056889236782298172_n.jpg



Apparently it has been in the River Itchen. I would love to see some photo's of boats being lifted after 12 months which have been antifouled so that I can compare the best in class to the worst.
Click to expand...
 
Bobc said:
My bottom after 4 years with antifouling and no scrubbing. I think it all depends on the type of paint and how much you use the boat.

View attachment 52212

View attachment 52213
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Depends on the mooring - my hull is fouler than your pics after only three months in (with 2 coats of "quality" antifoul) and has been used every week. It sits in a perfect growing medium of mud and whatever comes down the river (field runnoff ?) in Portsmouth.
 
I idly wonder... since ultrasonic antifouling seems to work to at least some extent, but is impractical to mount on boats due to constant power draw ... perhaps marinas could mount some high powered ultrasonic antifouling at every other pontoon to keep our bottoms clear that way. All part of the berthing fee!
 
That hull doesn't surprise me in the vicinity of Shamrock/Kemps Quay - River Itchen seems a very high density barnacle/tubeworm area (not to mention oyster catchers etc. using your deck as a mussel processing station)
 
Seven Spades said:
I have Copper Coat and I am fed up with the slime and this year the grass is worse than ever. I have never owned the boat with antifoul so I don't know how much better or worse it is, but as it is 8 years old now I am considering changing back to antifoul. I will soon know if copper coat os better or worse than antifoul. However, I have just seen these photos on the Shamrock Quay facebook page and I am having second thoughts. They say that the boat in question has been in the water for 18 months!


11391702_791386660978474_6688525215032297154_n.jpg


11391453_791386467645160_6770713776446960783_n.jpg


11257189_791386864311787_5261121092580494797_n.jpg


11401378_791386920978448_4056889236782298172_n.jpg



Apparently it has been in the River Itchen. I would love to see some photo's of boats being lifted after 12 months which have been antifouled so that I can compare the best in class to the worst.
Click to expand...

Those pictures are very similar to boats that have been left (neglected) in our freshwater fed dock in North Wales. Mostly rarely used boats in direct sunlight suffered from massive growths of tubeworm. This is a non native species that grows very fast in warm brackish water. Not Salt. Our boat has been spotless after 18 months in the water... But it gets used! The tubeworm seems particularly attracted to bare props, stern shafts, metal or any rubber that is not protected by a layer of antifouling paint or coppercoat..
 
I've had 2 years from my last antifoul - one at the top of the Hamble and the second at the bottom of the Itchen. Hauled out will some fouling but nothing serious. That was Seaqueen though. The new stuff (Jotan's non-stop) doesn;t seem as good going on the first 2 months.
 
Copper manages to kill bacteria and animals, but by experience it has a lesser effect on plants and fungi.
The best antifouls have copper, the more, the better

If I had a boat with coppercoat, I would put up with the slime that we get with all antifouls and I will never ruin it by painting over even the best of antifouls.

You have already the best, just clean the slime more frequently.
 
I don't know what is in the water of Portsmouth Harbour, but if we could produce its land equivalent it would be worth a fortune as fertiliser.
One can look through the water (yes, this is Portsmouth - maybe things have changed) and see fine healthy fish eat the weed off pontoons, piles .. from anywhere except my boat. Grey mullet, I admit.
My, so far limited, experience of Coppercoat mirrors that of others ... it's not obviously better or worse than conventional antifouling in terms of preventing marine growth, but said growth comes more off easily with Coppercoat.
As I understand it, the most consistent factor in a generally inconsistent topic is that boats like being used and hate being left idle. I used to sail often in a beautiful old classic yacht owned by a club - it sailed nearly every day in summer and certainly every week-end in Spring and Autumn, and at haul-out it showed very little fouling. Whereas my boat has seen rather little use for a while due to my being occupied with Other Matters such as fell walking, dinghy sailing and house maintenance, and the fouling gets worse before my very eyes.
Most critical spot, on my boat anyway, isn't the hull - it's the prop which soon becomes a revolving bush (despite being made of a copper alloy). Meanwhile the log impeller is an ecosystem of its own.
 
blackbeard said:
I don't know what is in the water of Portsmouth Harbour, but if we could produce its land equivalent it would be worth a fortune as fertiliser.
One can look through the water (yes, this is Portsmouth - maybe things have changed) and see fine healthy fish eat the weed off pontoons, piles .. from anywhere except my boat. Grey mullet, I admit.
My, so far limited, experience of Coppercoat mirrors that of others ... it's not obviously better or worse than conventional antifouling in terms of preventing marine growth, but said growth comes more off easily with Coppercoat.
As I understand it, the most consistent factor in a generally inconsistent topic is that boats like being used and hate being left idle. I used to sail often in a beautiful old classic yacht owned by a club - it sailed nearly every day in summer and certainly every week-end in Spring and Autumn, and at haul-out it showed very little fouling. Whereas my boat has seen rather little use for a while due to my being occupied with Other Matters such as fell walking, dinghy sailing and house maintenance, and the fouling gets worse before my very eyes.
Most critical spot, on my boat anyway, isn't the hull - it's the prop which soon becomes a revolving bush (despite being made of a copper alloy). Meanwhile the log impeller is an ecosystem of its own.
Click to expand...

Yep, my prop needs a clean - there's a red weed (war of the worlds anybody?) that clings tenaciously to the prop and needs a wire brush to get it off. Still, at least the shitehawks seem to be staying away this year.
 
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