Does antifoul really work

a bit

it definitely works well as a sacrificial layer instead of the grp gelcoat or wooden surface if a wooden boat. It *may* or may not deter whatever fancies attaching itself.

No, an annual scrape not mandatory, but the genral form is that they lift the boat, whack it with a jetwash and say "ooh you need some antifoul, we can do that for you".

Howevr, i am coming round to the idea of testing the new antifoul... with a jetwash! Give it a good whamming and if any of the new stuff comes off ...it shows that the main reason everyone needs new antifoul each year is that the yard whacked it with a jetblaster. If you jetblasted almost any painted surface i bet it would need repainting pretty soon. Worth a try, anyone?
 
Of course it does, but that does not mean that your hull comes out completely clean. Get mud on top of the anti foul from taking to the ground and the growth will be there on top of the mud.

Would work a lot better if the companies were allowed to use real nasties in the formulation, like they do on SOLAS vessels.

Always needed? No. I have a relative in Guernsey who takes advanmtage of the tides and dries out twice a season. Sprays the growth with household bleach to kill it, lets the bleach stand for an hour or two and then pressure washed the dead growth off the gelcoat. Equally, when my boat was well up the Severn with a mixture of fresh water and toxics from the (then ) industrial west midlands, anti foul wasnt really necessary.

Depends a bit on the boat. When I had a cat it was far more important to keep the hulls clean as I found out one year when bad fouling on the south coast meant the boat was very difficult to tack. Cleaned the hull of 3 inch long fine hair type weed, and it was back to normal.
 
Antifoul works extremely well and is always completely fit for purpose. Unfortunately you, the punter, do not understand the purpose. The purpose is to transfer money from your bank account to that of the paint maker and thus, utimately as VAT payments, to Europe. This is why the EU have legislated consistently for antifoul to become less and less effective, requiring more and more regular application.

Its a simple theory and it fits all the known facts, therefore by Occam's Razor, it must be right:-)
 
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Antifoul works extremely well and is always completely fit for purpose. Unfortunately you, the punter, do not understand the purpose. The purpose is to transfer money from your bank account to that of the paint maker and thus, utimately as VAT payments, to Europe. This is why the EU have legislated consistently for antifoul to become less and less effective, requiring more and more regular application.

Its a simple theory and it fits all the known facts, therefore by Occam's Razor, it must be right:-)

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Exactly my point also provides money for bat yard and jet blasting company . So why not spend money on a wet suit etc and dive overboard with a paint scraper every few weeks . You get the exercise ,the satisfaction and less cost
 
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Try Dulux & Paraquat mix, & depending on your area, perhaps a little cyanide. Nothing will grow on your boat or anyone elses within 50 feet!

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But do of course remember to fit a holding tank for the poo.
 
I always rise to this one. I have never antifouled my 27 foot bilge keeler in the ten years I have had her. Once every summer I dry out on a sand bank and spend a whole half hour scraping off with the back of a broom and once every autumn at lift out the yard gives it a quick go over with a pressure washer. Unless you are racing why bother? Or is there some theory that the antifouling increase impact resistance or makes the boat more waterproof?
 
Acshully, without AF we will loose up to 2 knots by July.

I just wish the claims from the manufacturer were true, concerning time. I reckon by late September the weed is starting to grow.

Though, we have not painted since last May and although the slime is heavy and plenty of weed we are still barnacle free, but that might be the chilli powder we added.

I might be able to get some decent stuff this year after a chat with a local fisherman, so fingers crossed!
 
I reckon it does. Unfortunately the best is also the most expensive. however a product like Micron which with enough coats can last 2 years may be cost effective if it saves lift out fees. In the past I used Micron to the derision of many around who use cheapies but my hull was a hell of a lot cleaner after a full year than theirs were after a six month season. This year I have applied 3 full coats = 3 full cans at a cost of £210. In theory this should last 2 years. Since my last lift out cost over £300 it will be cost effective if it works. Time will tell.
 
The best in our area is International Optima, 2 part and waterbased but you need a 2nd and a 3rd mortgage to buy it. We used it for about 7 years until we had a dodgy batch, had to take it all off and then time constraints and weather (Optima needs dry weather for 24hrs, no frost etc) meant we changed back to Micron Extra which is more forgiving. Micron works very well except that in Poole the slime builds up, shallow silty warm water I suppose, however for our 41 footer the difference in cost is around £140! Our favoured choice now is to use Micron and have a diver clean the slime off the bottom during the season, last year just one dive was needed before our annual cruise and the cost of £35 meant we were still saving £100+ over using Optima. Other boats in our club use a variety of products, the racers still like harder finishes that can be burnished and then have regular diver cleans during the season. Blakes also do a 2 pack which seems to work well in Poole, theirs is solvent not waterbased and is slightly cheaper than Optima. I should add that I'm finicky and don't like to drop speed and even slime makes a marked difference, our antifoul is white too so that slime shows up. Others using Micron might not bother with a diver especially if the colour was darker and the slime therefore not so obvious.
 
"In the med I believe they use emulsion with chilli powder in it. Anyone know if this is as good as/ better than antifoul paint? "

Not tried this myself but I know a few people in the Caribbean who do.

The best story was from a chap called Max who was doing a marine biology postgrad. His prof was asked test a 'magic' new antifouling for oil rigs. They set up several panels in a tidal river and this was Max's job. The 'magic' antifouling performed badly. It turned out the river has a very aggressive kind of barnacle. When the prof reviewed the the panels he said "that's odd Max, number 7 is the best, but I only asked you to trial 6!". Max confessed that number 7 was his own blend which used a standard ablative antifouling with one bottle of tabsco sauce in every quart. He got idea off a fisherman who had done it for years. Max has done it ever since. Max's boat Kandu looked a lot better than mine a year after antifouling and as I say I've met other people who swear by this too. Whether it works in UK waters who knows, but maybe someone can try - paint one side the hull with tabasco sauce added and one without, and tell us what happens!
 
Our environmentally correct harbour bans the use of pressure washers for hull cleaning.

To use the grid (inexpensive and has a electrical plug nearby and a garden house connection) we have to sign a will not pressure wash contract!
 
Look at it this way: what's the best outcome you can expect if you keep your boat in a mixture of salt and fresh water for, say, 5 months a year? In my experience, a slime coating, if you've applied at least one coating of a regular antifoul (my experience) with some barnacles on the metal parts.

What makes others' experience different? How much you move the boat, in my view. Antifoul needs water moving past it faster than the normal tidal effect to expose new layers of paint. Ergo, if you put 3 layers on but leave the boat on a swing mooring for much of the time - ie with 1,2,3 weeks between moving her, you will get a big crudup - the paint has no real chance to work. Not the paint's fault, your fault. So you move her to a pile, get rid of the greenery, expose a fresh layer of paint, put her back on the same mooring and it happens all over again.

I reckon one solution is to park in one of those closed marinas where the buildup of toxins in the water is nigh disgusting - not much grows there!

PWG
 
I likewise use Optima and find it absolutely excellent - I would not expect any fouling at all over a season, the hull is generally a nice blue colour when it comes out same as when it went in, and that is without a scrub mid-season. I've used it while based on the south coast, the east coast and the Baltic, so it doesn't seem too area-sensitive.

As you say it's expensive, but it can be spread pretty thinly - I get away using one tin, so total cost for my boat is about £85. I guess my boat is a lot smaller than yours though.

The other great thing about it is that it is so easily rubbed off at the end of the season, there is no build-up of anti-fouling over the years (another good reason to spread it thinkly). I normally allow about an hour to rub down and prepare the whole hull. That is a very messy hour though!

Although it's quite expensive, if you're the type who normally lifts out for a scrub then you'll be saving the cost of that, so it may work out cheaper in the end. But basically you're paying a decent price for a product that works, rather than a low price for a product that doesn't!

I used the Blakes equivalent of Optima one year and didn't like it at all - had a build up of slime, so went back to Optima. The price difference was not great anyway.
 
If we hadn't had a bad batch of Optima we would probably still be using it because as you say it does work and the boat came out as clean as on launch day, no slime even.

We only have 4 weeks out, we are also constrained by our draught needing good spring tides fot the boatlift to take us out and relaunch and we have to share the 'big' cradle with 2 and sometimes 3 other boats with the same draught and so time is of the essence! When we had to strip the dodgy Optima it left us little time to prime then re-antifoul and soddes law said the weather turned unsettled as well, so we went back to the easier to use solvent based Micron. We used about 7lts of Optima (3.5 tins) versus 6.5lts of Micron to put 2 full coats on a 41 footer, Optima covers less as well as costs more. We used to use less but then raised the antifoul to the lowest of the hull stripes to avoid the green yuk and that added over a litre to our usage. I did think of trying just one thick coat of Optima but really we still had the weather problem and Micron was the easier option, plus in truth it worked OK. Last season we were seeing some slime by early July (launched mid March) but a fast belt across Channel shifted a lot of it, but we were off for a 5 week trip later in the month so had a £35 dive-clean just before we left. We are due come out this Friday and the hull has some slime but it isn't excessive and the boat hasn't moved since early November. So on balance the diver route saves us a few quid, takes out the weather uncertainty from applying the waterbased Optima and gives a chance for the prop to be cleaned, the cutter and the anodes checked as well just before we go away.
 
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I did think of trying just one thick coat of Optima but really we still had the weather problem

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Yes, with Optima you do have to leave it 24 hours in dryish conditions before immersion.

About quantities, in the last few years of using it I've never put more than one coat on - I did in the first two years, but I found myself sanding much of it off in the winter anyway, so in the end put on as thin a single layer as I possibly could.

That worked fine, but you do have to slap it on thickly with 2/3 thick solid coats in high wear areas (around the waterline, trailing and leading edges of keel and rudder, and especially in areas where there's prop wash). The covering in other areas can be very thin indeed - and it then needs little, if any, sanding in the winter before putting next year's stuff on. My impression is that the previous year's stuff, if it's poking through in patches, still seems to be working reasonably well the next year. After all, if I remember correctly, International don't specify a maximum period for application before immersion, so it doesn't seem to go off.
 
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