Does anyone scrub instead of antifoul?

Rivers & creeks

Rivers & creeks

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I hate antifouling, really hate it. I have a big underwater profile and I can't afford coppercoat. Two years ago I was amazed at how effective one of those brio things were when I borrowed one and now the Scrrubis has come out with rave user reviews and only costing £70, I wondered what the point of antifouling is? I always have mixed results from the paint, last year was reasonable, this year the growth since March has been insane. We have proper finger pontoons at our marina and you can also book a hammerhead so I thought why not use a Scrubbis three times a year before each holiday cruise? Guaranteed clean hull, a lot less money and waaaay less effort? We still come out for six weeks in June and early July when my shift pattern is 7/7 so we get to do anodes and the hull dries. Hmmm. What do you think?
 
I dry out, pressure wash and scrape (barnacle growth). I've not A/Fed for about 12 years and the boat stays in all year, but I do keep the boat on a river where it is salty on incoming tide and nearly fresh on ebb.
I try and do it twice a year, April / May and around August.
 
EdWingfield said:
I wonder if you could vary your watery environments occasionally ie. move the boat from seawater to fresh you might not need antifoul?
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Someone who keeps his boat on a river in France, upstream of a lock, assures me that he doesn't need to antifoul. When he goes to sea, the freshwater fouling is killed by the saltwater and when he returns to the river, the fresh water kills off the marine fouling.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
I hate antifouling, really hate it. I have a big underwater profile and I can't afford coppercoat. Two years ago I was amazed at how effective one of those brio things were when I borrowed one and now the Scrrubis has come out with rave user reviews and only costing £70, I wondered what the point of antifouling is? I always have mixed results from the paint, last year was reasonable, this year the growth since March has been insane. We have proper finger pontoons at our marina and you can also book a hammerhead so I thought why not use a Scrubbis three times a year before each holiday cruise? Guaranteed clean hull, a lot less money and waaaay less effort? We still come out for six weeks in June and early July when my shift pattern is 7/7 so we get to do anodes and the hull dries. Hmmm. What do you think?
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If you see John the Fish ( Sealine 28 ) on D pontoon he will offer to brizo youe hull for a consideration into club funds
 
I think some people make a meal of antifouling.
It takes me about an hour, once a year to roll on a fresh coat, and that suffices for the year.
Done while the boat is out of the water for the winter.
Cost: about £40-50 for the AF paint. (usually less)

I'd guess there to me more work involved in 2-3 times a year hull clean in or out the water.
 
parsifal said:
Someone who keeps his boat on a river in France, upstream of a lock, assures me that he doesn't need to antifoul. When he goes to sea, the freshwater fouling is killed by the saltwater and when he returns to the river, the fresh water kills off the marine fouling.
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Its not me referred to above but that's exactly how I use my boat. In the water year round, lift out once every two years for a few weeks in the summer although I do put a coat of antifoul on at that time, its probably not worth it. Never get any fouling apart from black slime that jet washes off at lift out and occasionally a little green stuff around the waterline but that scrubs off in minutes with a stiff brush.
 
FWIW, I'm in a river creek so a mix of salt & fresh anyway depending on the tides & rainfall. It is a relatively low foul environment so & simply beach the boat in the warmer weather & go over the side with a garden hoe & a yard brush. I did it last week in a couple of hours, no problem & good exercise. If it gets bad later, I may do it again late summer, but that's it.

Much nicer task than the last time when I anti fouled in the SNOW just before craning in.
 
When I bought my first boat it was 11 years old and had never been antifouled. Although fin keeled it dried every tide alongside a jetty. Every month or so the previous owner would take a few minutes to go over the hull and keel with a broom, keeping growth at bay.

Fresh water is a great help, although some fouling does occur. When we lived in Holland we still needed to antifoul each year.
 
MM5AHO said:
I think some people make a meal of antifouling.
It takes me about an hour, once a year to roll on a fresh coat, and that suffices for the year.
Done while the boat is out of the water for the winter.
Cost: about £40-50 for the AF paint. (usually less)

I'd guess there to me more work involved in 2-3 times a year hull clean in or out the water.
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Please come and show us how to antifoul a 35 foot long keeled hull in an hour - I will watch and learn, I'll even provide the sandwiches :)
 
Lazy Kipper said:
Please come and show us how to antifoul a 35 foot long keeled hull in an hour - I will watch and learn, I'll even provide the sandwiches :)
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Clearly I have an advantage. Only 32ft (Rival 32, long keel, but not very deep one).

Next winter I will time this and let you know. My guess is an hour, certainly not more than 90mins. Its one of many jobs done in a day's worth of maintenance. How long does it take others?
I mask the waterline, don't have a different coloured bootstrap, brush the top 50-100mm or so, and use a narrow roller for the rest. Single thick coat, undiluted.
 
Nope - I never antifoul my bilge keeler. Far quicker and cheaper to start the season with a clean bottom, dry out once or twice during the summer and scrub off, and then pressure wash when I take her out at the end of the season. Of course the scrubbing off can take time - sometimes even half an hour!
 
I think it rather depends on where you sail/keep the boat. I trailer sail so don't anti-foul at all. The longest the boat was in the water last year was 10 days on the river Crouch and I couldn't believe the number of barnacles that attached themselves to the boat in that time (locals did tell me that the Crouch is quite a "healthy" river so there is quite a bit living in the water). By contrast I spent 8 days down on the Solent and there was just a bit of slime around the waterline after that time. I'm not quite sure about this definition of "healthy" as I know which water i would have preferred to swim in........!
 
I antifoul about once every 4 years - I've a little boat on the South Coast (can't sell it) and the main boat in Corfu at the moment, but same principle with both. Keep them in the water all the time and have an underwater scrub at least once a season, then only antifoul when white patches start showing through.

Seems to work ok and I do accompany it by a waterline scrub two or three times more a season - either from the marina pontoon, or using one of those excellent double sucker handles for panes of glass to hold onto the hull from the water and scrub.

But I can remember times a few years ago when that would never have worked - in the Solent and once in Plymouth where growth was copious and quick - not sure whether antifouls have got a lot better or whether I've just been lucky in the harbours I've been in. I suspect it's antifouls as I was silly enough to leave our rib in the water in our home marina (Kremik in Croatia) for six weeks. It had about 3 inches thick of barnacles, weed, jelly and was a complete nightmare. The main boat with 3 year old antifouling was fine apart from a little scrubbably soft weed at the waterline.
 
I was having a similar thought recently but using the Sealift2 at haslar instead. My question is how frequently would you need to lift out/scrub? (assuming you have no opportunity for the freshwater mooring that this thread now seems to be talking about)
 
I'm on a drying mooring in Portsmouth harbour & nothing I've tried works. The boat sits in the mud for an hour or two each tide and the mud sticks to the boat and the critters stick to the mud. The only solution I've found is to scrub off 2-3 times a year.

Fortunately, my club scrubbing grid and pressure washer aren't very dear, but lying on my back between the keels scraping off the wall-to-wall barnacles is definitely an over-rated experience :disgust:
 
This year I put on two thin coats of a one coat antifoul by a good brand. I intend to scrub it down when I get chance to dry and will try to keep it going for 2-3 years. I heard that is easily possible. We'll see.
 
northcave said:
This year I put on two thin coats of a one coat antifoul by a good brand. I intend to scrub it down when I get chance to dry and will try to keep it going for 2-3 years. I heard that is easily possible. We'll see.
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I used a high quality a/f last June and it was good last year but monumental growth this spring. Maybe it needs a scrub to re activate it like coppercoat does?
 
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