East Coast antifouling

Saguday

Saguday

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Not particularly proud of this but thought I might pass it on...

Saguday was hauled out for a mega fettling about 2-3 weeks ago. Due to circumstances partially/sometimes/often not in our control this was her first haul out for 4 years (yes, I know...). Contrary to the expectations of the yard, other Tollesbury berth holders, friends and even ourselves she mostly cleaned off with just a pressure wash and a bit of scraping of barnacles off the lower foot or so of the keel (which touches the mud at low tides). Anodes were well gone but not completely, enough left to still be working anyway, but apart form waterline weed which needed a bit of work to take the stains off she was all good.

She had a coat or two of Micron Extra before she went in, the same as we'd used in the US, and perhaps significantly we used black paint. The wee beasties don't seem to like black, judging by the results after 4 years, and Micron Extra seems to work a treat. Anyone else had similar experiences?

We've just put another thick coat of the same stuff on for the next year and plan to be a bit more diligent in terms of regular maintenance henceforth. However there are two boats currently out of the water at Tollesbury which have had Coppercoat and they look extremely good indeed. It doesn't look like it's as expensive as I thought it might be either (we need between 7-8L to put two good antifoul coats on Saguday) and I'm considering it for next year or thereabouts. Any comments or opinions on this from people who've used it?
 
Used Micron Extra for years - black as it happens - with great results. My regime used to be to apply 2-3 thick coats by brush every 2 years, with the boat continually in the water the rest of the time. New boat has a saildrive so I guess it'll need to be lifted annually for anode check, but will still use Micron Extra.
 
Before this year I had used Uno but wasn't altogether happy with the results. I found slime developing within 4-6 weeks of going back in the water in Burnham, and plenty of weed by the time I hauled out around 9 months later. I had a word with the guy on the International stand at LIBS this year and he said that the east coast is a high fouling area, so use Micron Extra.

I applied it as advised and launched. This year we also moved to Brightlingsea which seems to be worse for fouling. On top of that, from reports on here, we seems to be having an especially heavy year for fouling. We didn't get out in the early season due to kids studying for exams and general family stuff, but even with all that I was disappointed the find a load of weed around the waterline when we set off for our hols at the end of July.

I shouldn't have worried. The weed of bits that I could access from the pontoon came off easily with the deck brush, and a bash up the wallet to Shotley sorted out the rest. There was just a bit of slime remaining by the time we got up there. I'll see what it's like when I haul out but its looking good so far.
 
The efficacy of antifouling can be incredibly different even within the same generic location. At Mersea, it's very different in Salcott from Thorn Fleet and indeed different at the Quarters end from the Strood end... I've used Seajet Shogun blue for years, and have a diver scrub around 5-6 times a year and am very pleased with the results for a boat at the Quarters end of Salcott
 
Being in a marina may have some effect. We used to get very foul on a mooring at Maylandsea since the suspended matter would settle on the antifouling and render it ineffective within a couple of weeks. We never got foul while in Heybridge basin and I think a visit there, or to a Dutch canal might help.
 
Several people told me it was bad this year and were hauling out every few months to scrub off. We usually give the waterline a casual scrub as and when and it never builds up but we were away longer than we wished which caused the main problem on the gel coat. However some FSR and elbow grease sorted it out.

We used to keep our previous (smaller) boat on a mooring on the Strood and used Uno I think, it did build up but we kept her out of the water over winter so she was scrubbed annually. With the bigger boat she's in all year round.

Black Micron extra does seem to do the trick though, pretty impressed.
 
I've use Flag for the last two years; the harder one and am pleased although like Gladys I need mid-season scrubs - 3 this year I think by the diver. I am convinced that marina dwellers have it easier by a general toxation (is there such a word) from all them boats eroding, whereas Salcott grows some of the best Oysters in the UK presumably because the water is a nutritious soup.
 
Heybridge is of course fresh water, so all the salt water weed and beasties expire quite quickly!
We have spent a couple of weeks in the Norfolk rivers this year and it will be interesting to see the hull state on lift out. It certainly seems pretty clean at present. I do try to go over the upper ares that I can reach with a long brush several times each season which helps to keep any waterline weed at bay.
I have used Seajet Shogun black for some years and found it effective. Based at RHYC cruising East Coast.
 
At Southwold the base we use is Seajet Shogun as over the last three or four years it has performed the best.
However the price has increased steadily and so we are trying others.
Cruise Uno seems to be effective though seems susceptible to a slime build up, though this has little effect on boat speed.
I'm trying Jotun currently on mine and will review in the spring.
Coppercoat here simply does not work for whatever reason, the worse fouled boats so far this year were coppercoated plus anode deterioration appears to have massively increased on one boat.
 
I've used Flag with reasonable results in previous years but this year on a swinging mooring in the crouch like others I've been really badly affected by what I usually describe as coconut mat fibres in Vaseline and home to black wriggling things. Looks like a scrb every month is the only solution.
 
We dried out yesterday to change the anode, and if necessary scrub. There was almost no fouling at all. Very little slime, no barnacles, no weed except a tiny bit on the bow. The anti foul applied in February was hempel something, dark blue. In the yard (Bridgemarsh on the Crouch), they say that fouling has been particularly bad this year. I suspect that the secret of our clean boat is that she has been from salt to fresh to salt to fresh to dirty canal to salt... to brackish Baltic, and back again - nothing survives that!
 
tillergirl said:
I've use Flag for the last two years; the harder one and am pleased although like Gladys I need mid-season scrubs - 3 this year I think by the diver. I am convinced that marina dwellers have it easier by a general toxation (is there such a word) from all them boats eroding, whereas Salcott grows some of the best Oysters in the UK presumably because the water is a nutritious soup.
Click to expand...

I use flag semi hard too, and have done for the last two seasons. Seems to our work well on a half tide berth.
 
tillergirl said:
I am convinced that marina dwellers have it easier by a general toxation (is there such a word) from all them boats eroding, whereas Salcott grows some of the best Oysters in the UK presumably because the water is a nutritious soup.
Click to expand...
I like toxation but it is not an allowable Scrabble word. I suspect that I would have neologised it into toxication or toxification, both of which are just clumsy, my middle name.
 
And the 'Yachty' alternative which I had to have this year does not appear to as good........ Why Seaqueen has to be applied 'professionally' I don't understand - our boatyard applies it just like I do - with a roller.......
 
Concerto is berthed in Chatham Maritime Marina. She was launched on 29 April with Dover White Micron as a double top coat over a blue Interspeed. So far I have not seen any blue show through and still have not scrubbed yet. There are a few little thin green stands just on the boot top and a little brown colour showing on the rudder. Still cannot make up my mind whether to dry her out and scrub now or wait until the spring when she is due to come out for 3 months. It seems the old dockyard water is not a great place for weed to grow, but I have seen mullet in the water, so there must be something for them to feed on.
 
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