East Coast Fouling this year

[FullCircle]

I have had the boat in since May, new out of the wrapper. The yard put a poor coat of fouling on, then left it for 3 weeks. Next time I saw it, the whole hull had been covered at least up to the taped lines, in a nice shade of blue. Dont know what.
After 6 weeks in water, I had to clean off about 2 inches of weed, particularly on the bow. 2 weeks later, its back at 4 inches long and difficult to move. In fact I have worn away the fouling near the bow trying to move the stuff with a broom.
I am on a swinging mooring out in th Crouch.
I think that it is a bum job, or am I whinging? Looking at other boats they only seem to have a slime.

Can any of you 'butters give me a measure of whats happening to your boats this year?

Ta v. much


Jim

 

[moonshine]

Jim,

I look forward to seeing the pictures of you plus snorkle and wetsuit on the end of rope scrubbing off !!??

Not a good advert for BYH ?

AW

 

[FullCircle]

Welcome back O rich retired one! Whither thou? And are you still looking for a boat?

 

[moonshine]

Hoy less the 'rich' /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif, it matters little at 11 weeks after a HT /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif!!

Still in the market for a snappy Nauticat 331 or Ovni 345. Slightly differing requirements for SWMBO and me /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif.

A

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Jim,

We are a bit fouled, but not too bad.... mainly slime... not much evidence of weed growth perhaps the odd clump here and there of max 2 inches... but even that is dropping off after a good sail...... we only used cheapo Compass own brand anti foul.... single coat...

Certainly not fouled enough to need a scrub.... not noticed other boats at Neptune being particularly fouled either apart from the usual few suspects that don't look like they've been moved for 3 years.....

Wonder if the difference is in being locked through rather than on a swinging mooring?... don't know what AF your yard used, but it ain't working!

 

[tillergirl]

The last couple of years have been b. awful for me here at West Mersea with three scrubs during the season - Blakes Tiger each time. Visiting the Blakes stand at the Boat Show, it was suggested that I scrubbed too hard and knocked the stuffing out of the AF! If that was right I managed to separate the pigments from the poisons because it stayed blue. More likely, it was my application contributing. I winter in a mud berth and scrub and anti-foul between tides on the beach each May. Last year it was a pretty wet week and I don't reckon I was as dry as I should have been, hence poor performance.

Last winter I was lifted out to do the keel bolts and a couple of seams and so I decided to give Tiger a really good test - good preparation, two coats of underwater primer and three coats of Tiger. Result - pretty good with only slight but unsightly slime until this week when between Saturday and today, there is noticeable growth and a scrub is obviously needed.

I have a private theory about swinging moorings that we don't benefit from adjacent boats. In a marina, the density of boats and the slower moving water, I would have thought have created a concentration of AF in the water which benefits all. On a swinging mooring, no such benefit can be likely? So I would suggest that inevitably we are more at risk from fouling. Might be nonsense but it seems logical to me.

 

[LadyInBed]

Wrong type of A/F for the area??

 

[tillergirl]

Well yes, maybe but then there doesn't seem to be any concensus on what is the right one and most people here anyway seem to scrub once a year mid season which is what I shall be doing this year - so perhaps it isn't the wrong one. The reality is that since TBT was banned, they ain't as good - which is of course obvious since TBT was banned because it was 'too good'

 

[AliM]

We've been in since Christmas and have a good coating of slime. We had a superficial scrub last time we went aground (well, it made it look as if it was deliberate), and the slime brushed off quite easily and there was no long growth. I think it was Micron we used. We are in the Crouch, too. We are due for another decent scrub in the next week or two, before we go off for our summer hols.

Last year, we went to Denmark. I don't know if it was the change in seawater, or the very dirty Kiel canal, but there was hardly any slime at all when we got back, after 9 months.

 

[RMA]

Jim

My boat is about a mile upriver from yours. I dried out a few weeks ago after three and a bit months in the water and found a few barnacles and a thin coating of slime but no weed. I use Micron Extra. I have spoken to several people who say they have had excellent results with Flagship antifouling – Flag Paints are based in Burnham somewhere.

Roger

 

[Talbot]

After years of Micron, this year i changed to TeaMac. - much better and a lot cheaper than Micron. Normally by now I would have weed on the waterline, and boat speed would have reduced, This year I have some slime, and no real reduction in speed.

 

[davidfox]

Had a similar result to yours when I applied cheap AF. - XM cheapo 2 star whatever, since I have used UNO which is one coat (not surprisingly) for last 4 years have had hardly any fouling We are on the orwell.

 

[Mirelle]

Nice theory

which I think is certainly right, and here is another:

I suspect that the water is actually warmer, and that this has a lot to do with it.

The fouling that we get now seems to get worse in July and August whereas in "the old days" it was at its worst in May and June.

Certainly the water warms up more in July and August.

 

[Cobra]

We are on the Colne, and as at two weeks ago only had a very light coating of slime. We are on tidal pontoon moorings, and prior to going back in gave her two coats of XM3000. This is now the third season we have used XM, and cannot speak highly enough of the results!

We usually dry out in mid August and give her a quick scrub down, which last season was an almost effortless affair other than for a cluster of Barnacles that had taken up residence (for some reason) on the bottom quarter of the rudder!

By the end of the season we usually have a further coating of slime that the yard pressure washes off.

By comparison XM2000 is really dire! Another boat in our yard used XM2000 last year, and the yard were debating whether a strimmer or Agent Orange would be the more suitable option to clean her down!

 

[paulrossall]

I am on the Deben and used XM2000 last year as previous years. Only got slime which was easily brushed off half way through the season. Boatyard pressure washed the boat in January and slime again came off easily. The boatyard antifouled boat this year and used a Blakes product. It will be interesting to see the result at the end of the season. Paul