Homemade antifouling copper based experiences

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GrumpyOldGit

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Hi to all,

Having been brought close to apoplexy by seeing the price of 'Coppercoat' antifouling, I am interested to hear if any of the panel have successfully created their own copper dust/ copper oxide based antifouling paint ?
The copper dust can be bought relatively cheaply on ebay and so forth but does it work?
Can I simply buy some budget antifouling paint and stir in some dust thereby making an eroding, high copper solids coating or is that just a bit too obvious...
Any experiences of yours will be gratefully received !
Looking forward to hearing from you all :D
 
As grafozz says, you can use a water soluble resin and copper particles, but a cheap antifouling will not behave in the way the binder/carrier should. An eroding antifouling will wear away too fast and your investment will be gone in a couple of years at best. A hard antifouling may not wear away as required to expose fresh copper as the original surface is depleted. Either way, bearing in mind the decade life expectancy of Coppercoat makes it far cheaper than a paint type antifouling over its lifetime.

Rob.
 
Some years ago, I think HLB, TCM, Sinbad and one other started experimenting with a Dulux Gloss + copper fines/filings mix at various concentrations. Pictures, even, were taken proving the brew was successful, and as I recall an awful lot cheaper than the stuff you buy.
 
GrumpyOldGit said:
Hi to all,

Having been brought close to apoplexy by seeing the price of 'Coppercoat' antifouling, I am interested to hear if any of the panel have successfully created their own copper dust/ copper oxide based antifouling paint ?
The copper dust can be bought relatively cheaply on ebay and so forth but does it work?
Can I simply buy some budget antifouling paint and stir in some dust thereby making an eroding, high copper solids coating or is that just a bit too obvious...
Any experiences of yours will be gratefully received !
Looking forward to hearing from you all :D
Click to expand...

ignoring the illegality of it, you are unlikely to get caught, the problem is that once the copper on the outside has eroded, it will stop working.

The water based epoxy in Coppercoat very slowly, over 20 years in the UK, erodes exposing fresh copper.

You could add copper to antifoul, but that won't last long either.

Coppercoat is expensive but good value, and over 20 years the cheapest option.
 
I know a bit about the chemistry (BSc Chem 1956), so I did an experiment a couple of years ago adding copper carbonate to white emulsion paint. It should have worked - the only question I had was about the effect of sea water on emulsion paint. The experiment was not a success. It grew nearly as much weed as plain emulsion and wasn't nearly as abrasion resistant as I thought it might be. Bog standard antifouling won the day much to my disappointment.
 
Elessar said:
Coppercoat is expensive but good value, and over 20 years the cheapest option.
Click to expand...
But it does not work properly so that makes it extremely expensive
If one allows for the obligatory mid season scrub then it is actually much dearer than the normal antifoulling paints
If you think it works then tell me why our fleet of squibs have to be scrubbed several times a year & why my boat is still foulling after second year. Just had a scrubbing session since april launch
& why the chap who does jet washing in st Hellier says he has never seen one that works yet
 
ParaHandy said:
Some years ago, I think HLB, TCM, Sinbad and one other started experimenting with a Dulux Gloss + copper fines/filings mix at various concentrations. Pictures, even, were taken proving the brew was successful, and as I recall an awful lot cheaper than the stuff you buy.
Click to expand...

It was international trilux with copper powder mixed in. I used it a few years back, lasted 3 seasons before anti fouling again.
 
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Daydream believer said:
But it does not work properly so that makes it extremely expensive
If one allows for the obligatory mid season scrub then it is actually much dearer than the normal antifoulling paints
If you think it works then tell me why our fleet of squibs have to be scrubbed several times a year & why my boat is still foulling after second year. Just had a scrubbing session since april launch
& why the chap who does jet washing in st Hellier says he has never seen one that works yet
Click to expand...

Slime yes, fouling no.
I would expect to clean it mid season, i do it with a snorkel, or you can use a brizo.
Come winter, lift and hold to change you anodes, dont pay yard fees whilst you paint.
Its simple, either your expectation is unrealistic - its an antifoul not a miracle - or you've not followed the instructions when youve put it on.
It works, its proven to work, its proven to last 20 years, its proven to save fuel, its proven to make your boat go faster.
Its also proven to work out cheaper. Your maths doesnt work!
 
Daydream believer said:
The op's idea cannot be any worse than coppercoat which has failed miserably in its second year as well as the first
Click to expand...

I've had Coppercoat on three boats. It works.
A trawl through umpteen past threads on the subject will also demonstrates that it works in an overwhelming number of cases. What's wrong with yours, I regret that I've no idea.
 
Elessar said:
Slime yes, fouling no.
I would expect to clean it mid season, i do it with a snorkel, or you can use a brizo.
Come winter, lift and hold to change you anodes, dont pay yard fees whilst you paint.
Its simple, either your expectation is unrealistic - its an antifoul not a miracle - or you've not followed the instructions when youve put it on.
It works, its proven to work, its proven to last 20 years, its proven to save fuel, its proven to make your boat go faster.
Its also proven to work out cheaper. Your maths doesnt work!
Click to expand...
Does 2 inch long "slime" well below the waterline count
Does so much " slime" that the boat cannot be sailed above 3 kts. Count
Or so much slime that when the engine was put on full revs the stern sunks so much the cockpit drains went under the water( & they are 15 inches above the normal waterline)the boat just squatted in the water due to drag
My squib is coated with Copper Tec & that is markedly better than the 4 professionally coated Copper Coat ones. But it still needs washing several times a year. Have no idea why this is so because i am told the copper content is no higher

My first attempt at copper coatings used Copper Bot
This failed miserably after 6-8 weeks. The supplier actually gave me another complete set of copper Bot to do again but i went back to normal antifoul. I had hoped that after 13 years the product would have improved - but unfortunately not much
 
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Daydream believer said:
Does 2 inch long "slime" well below the waterline count
Does so much " slime" that the boat cannot be sailed above 3 kts. Count
Or so much slime that when the engine was put on full revs the stern sunks so much the cockpit drains went under the water( & they are 15 inches above the normal waterline)the boat just squatted in the water due to drag
My squib is coated with Copper Tec & that is markedly better than the 4 professionally coated Copper Coat ones. But it still needs washing several times a year. Have no idea why this is so because i am told the copper content is no higher

My first attempt at copper coatings used Copper Bot
This failed miserably after 6-8 weeks. The supplier actually gave me another complete set of copper Bot to do again but i went back to normal antifoul. I had hoped that after 13 years the product would have improved - but unfortunately not much
Click to expand...

Don't confuse the generic term copper coating with the trade marked Coppercoat.

IF you have genuine Coppercoat, then you can expect no improvement over the years because it hasn't changed. It hasn't needed to. I think it's now up to about 30,000 boats over 20 years. They must have singled you out for a special batch. Or there's something you're not telling us.
 
Hi Mark. Over the last 20 years we have actually supplied Coppercoat to almost 50,000 people according to our latest calculations. And as has been widely reported in the marine press and online, the vast majority of users are very happy with it - be they private individuals, repair yards, boat builders, commercial operators, whatever. But of course, and as is the case with all anti-fouls, there are situations when a particular boat has not performed as well as the rest. Often the reason is obvious, such as an insufficient thickness being applied originally. But occasionally the reason is not so clear, which is infuriating for us and the owner.

A coupe of months ago I visited the Jersey Boat Show and took the opportunity to inspect some Coppercoat-treated boats in St Helier. From what I saw and from what our customers there report, I think the spray man mentioned above may be spinning a yarn (or mistaking Coppercoat for one of the failed/discontinued copies such as Copper-Guard or someone's home-brew). Certainly it's not a location where Coppercoat (and/or most other premium anti-fouls) struggle.

Reverting back to the original post, here in the UK the product cost of Coppercoat works out to be approximately £2 per m2 per year - which is considerably cheaper than repainting with a conventional system every year. Let's face it, the reason why so many people use Coppercoat is not because it looks pretty, it's because it provides a cheap solution to fouling. You might be able to (illegally) produce a home-brew version for even less than this, but I seriously doubt it - plenty of companies have tried over the years and failed miserably. Most either work well but only for a short period of time, or don't work at all. So for the majority it makes more sense to buy a properly developed and proven system, safe in the knowledge that support and advice is readily available.
 
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