Help -advice needed on second seasons antifoul

[Trintella]

Last year I stripped my Trintella 29 back to bare gel coat below the waterline, and the hull being checked by the yard and found to be dry (also what the surveyor found on the original survey - she'd been out of the water for about three seasons) I had her professionally prepared (sanded) and then epoxied with blakes solvent free epoxy - to whatever was the recommended spec.

I was then faced with the question of anit-fouling. I plumped for primer (of course) then two coats of hard racing antifoul (again Blakes).

I am not convinced that I made the right decision - my rationale was that using hard anti-foul would provide a more 'solid' foundation for subsequent coats.

I really don't want to strip it all off again as it would take ages - obviously I don't want to damage the epoxy coating.

Can I just key it and prime it then use ordinary eroding anti-foul from now on?

Many thanks

 

[jerryat]

Yes you can. Check with the Blakes website, but I'm sure it'll confirm that provided the surface is reasonably clean and not flaking, an eroding anti foul can be applied directly - i.e. without the need for a barrier coat.

Out of inerest, why don't you want to keep the hard stuff? I'm just about to epoxy (Blakes) my hull after drying it out, and like you was thinking of using a hard A/F myself for the first year or so, then switch to Self eroding if this wasn't successful in our high fouling (Plymouth) area.

Cheers jerry

 

[Trintella]

Many thanks, and good news, I'll be moving to the River Exe in May - looking forward to the West Country.

On racking brain, the other reason I went for hard was because I was moored in Langstone - subject therefore to fairly fast tides & didn't want eroding as it would go too quickly.

Same is true of Exe so I should stick with hard as long as its ok to rub down & re-coat each season. I'll check Blakes site as you suggest, if not will speak to them - seems obvious now you've suggested it.

Incidently, no idea how badly fouled she is now (been in marina for 6 months), but she's being lifted next week - I'll let you know how well the hard stuff worked!

Thank again

 

[jstr]

Can I just key it and prime it then use ordinary eroding anti-foul fro

I spoke to one of the Blakes staff at the London Boat Show and they confirmed this was OK - and is what I have just done - seems OK

 

[ashanta]

Good news that you coming to the Exe. I sure you'll love it.
I use Flag AF which is hard. I get some slime which I scrub down during the season and it's fine.

Regards.

Peter.

 

[tcm]

um, the self-eroding isn't so rapidly-eroding a it will all come of with tides, really. It's eroding such that if you bash around at high speed in a powerboat, then it'll over-erode, but even a blast with a jetwash won't take it off swoosh in minutes as your post seems to imply. But good idea to have hard base nonetheless

Separately, the paint factories would love everyone to get hold of the idea that antifouling every single year is an absolute must. But as most will find out - although there's often some gloop on the bottom almost all the paint applied previously will still be on there. Nothing particularly wrong with having several tin's worth of paint but it is unecc. expensive and only the extrnals layer is doing anything.

Not a bad idea is to do the eroding layer in a different colour than the current hard stuiff. Then you can see how it's going. Lots of so-called 1-season antifoulings can last much longer than 1 season.

all imho