How good is Coppercoat Antifouling?

[manlyp]

I'm thinking of Coppercoating my boat this year. It looks like a good investment if it lasts the advertised 10 years. I would take the boat out of the water every year to inspect the hull and change anodes, etc. What is the downside of the product? Can any boat owner, who has used Coppercoat and is not connected to the supplier (AMC of Wimborne), vouch for the advertised claims please.

 

[nimbusgb]

Recent Coppercoat thread

 

[gjgm]

maybe try on MOBO forum; there was some discussions a year or so ago. Especially about a DIY mix...

 

[Gwylan]

After a dodgy start I am convinced! As a recent convert I am embarrassing in my enthusiasm for the principle and CopperCoat product.
Have no connection with them, other than the fact that they got a lot of my money a couple of years ago.

 

[manlyp]

I've checked out some threads dated 2005. They were favourable but none had applied Coppercoat more than a year old. I would like to hear from boat owners who Coppercoated their boat more than five years ago!

 

[KlassifiedK2]

We used Coppershield not Copper Coat (supplied from Marine & Industrial) applied in 2005 on our Colvic 50 she came out of the water for the first time since application in March 2008 with just a slime to be washed off. A diver kept an eye on anodes and prop fouling at intervals whilst in the water.
You do get a bit of fouling where sunlight gets through the first few inches of water but that easily brushes off.

 

[manlyp]

Why was the start "dodgy"?

 

[vyv_cox]

I had Copperbot (=Coppercoat) on my keel for 10 years. Its antifouling properties were still good even after that time. It failed because rust got beneath it and the coating flaked off, emphasising the need for doing a complete job, rather than only half-doing it.

A friend had his boat in the water for 5 years non-stop in Mallorca. When lifted his Coppercoated hull was almost weed free.

 

[Georgio]

95% of the coppercoat boat owners I have spoken to when walking around the boat yard have been very positive about it. This includes several people who have left their boats in the water for 2-3 or more years.

A few people of here seem to knock it based on a friend of a friend who had a bad experience but problems often seem to be the result of poor DIY application in damp or cold conditions.

I'm pretty much sold on doing it next summer as it's not really a winter job.

 

[geoffatstanpit]

My boat was done with "Copperbot" in 1990 and it was still doing a good job when I bought the boat on 2000. Around 2005 it started getting barnacles on the extreme bottom where it sits on the mud so I started antifouling that part. Now - at 19 years- I will have to antifoul the lot because I got weed/slime on the other parts.

I guess copperbot is much the same as all the others - copper metal powder in some sort of resin.

 

[haroldsson]

We applied Coppercoat in Summer 2002. The boat then sat in a mud berth for nearly 2 years before we set off for the Med in June 2004. We are still there. We get mainly slime, but bits of more serious growth here and there. Considering the warm water is supposed to encourage fouling, we don't think it's too bad.

We are very happy not to have to antifoul every year, but have had 2 main problems. First, the surface is not completely flat, but rippled like orange peel. We're not sure whether this is due to the Coppercoat, the epoxy primer we used, or the epoxy coat which was on the boat before we started. In any event, it has made it very difficult to give the Coppercoat the annual rub-down which they recommend, because you can't get at the bit in the "valleys".

Second, although we prepared the surface as carefully as we could, we have still had areas where the coating has formed bubbles, which, when popped, have left small spots unprotected. We therefore have to touch these bits up each year with conventional antifouling. We have also had a few places where the coating has been damaged, and there also we have to touch up. The biggest area is along the foot of the keel, where rust has spread up from under the keel and undermined the coating. We understand it is possible to get small amounts of Coppercoat to make good, and we'll look into this when we get back to the UK. You can't legally carry the stuff on a plane.

 

[gianenrico]

Crossing fingers, I applied Coppercoat in new boat in june, 2006. She stays in Med waters ALL year long and I get some barnacles which are easily removed. IMHO there is no doubt about the "investment" and I would be satisfied even if it last 5 years.
Cheers.

 

[grafozz]

its the only way to go IMHO, i have used it since new on my boat , just re-applied it after 10 years of no anti-fouling !I have found its important to slightly abrade it every year prior to launch to "activate" the copper . using 400 grit paper .the competition is water soluble paint ! wish i had thought of that idea !

 

[horatio_nelson]

5yrs on, how's it looking? I'm considering getting it.

All reviews, opinions and hearsay appreciated

 

[SimbaDog]

Interested to know what sort of cost is involved (35' Deep Keel)

 

[Birdseye]

My boat was coated professionally in 2010. Since then it has worked well as an antifoul, better on crustaceans than weed. But no better overall than coventional antifoul, if quite as good. Based in falmouth I still need a mid season scrub off and this year for some reason it was a hard job. Previously it has been a wipe with a car sponge

It sticks well to grp but keels are an issue as already mentioned. My keel is lead and to be fair to coppercoat, nothing sticks well to lead. Even the lead producers wont recommend a paint for lead, and the EU has banned etching primers. The issue is much the same as painting ally - slightest breach / pinhole in the coating, water gets in, oxide is formed and this oxide blasts the loose coating off the metal. Ah, you say - there will be no breach in my coating. But what if you dry out against the quay wall, what about the misjudgement and that rock, what about winter storage and what about hitting some floating rubbish? In my case, the coppercoat didnt stick well to the AMC epoxy primer on the lead of the keel and repairing the coat in winter isnt easy. For a start you need the boat dangling in slings so you can coat the underside of the keel. The three coats or more of solvent free epoxy at one per day, then coppercoat all in one day at at least 10C on the keel then 4 days or more protected from any rain until you can finally abrade and launch. So 7 or more days in the club travelift? As for dimpled finish, spray application is the answer.

Would I chose coppercoat again? I'm not sure tbh. Certainly if/when the lead keel issue reappears I will do the keel in conventional. It wont stick any better but it is easier to repair. AMC are good to deal with and they have supported me with this problem, though I still think that their web site should make more clear the difficulties of coating lead. Nothing special about my case - there were some other boats in the yard where I overwintered with similar problems.

So its a mixed review. Lots of plusses, decent company to deal with, works well on grp but can be a problem on boats whose keel touches ground or which have lead keels.

 

[PhilipF]

You do get a bit of fouling where sunlight gets through the first few inches of water but that easily brushes off.

Yes, I'd agree with that. Our Nimbus was done around four years ago. Had it out of the water this year, overall condition so good, will not bother to take it out again, for another three years. But, I always disconnect mains power when I am not on the boat, hence I submit the reason for low anode wear.:encouragement:

 

[tcm]

I had the stuff on a boat, crossed the atlantic a few times and sailed round the word (altho that actually isn't a very hefty duty cycle for antifouling...) but anyways, the way one guy justified it on his boat was - how bad an idea is it to put 4-5 coats of epoxy below the waterline anyway, hm? Not a bad idea at all.

I did mine DIY, hauled he boat in lanzarote nice an dry and sunny, tried to get all the antifoul off but hard work and eventually on third day i hired in a couple of yard guys with power sanders - 40grit sounds a bit much but it produces a good surface. Boat was 3-4years old when i did it.

The stuff arrives in 1-litre packs - i said oi isn't it cheaper in bigger packs? and they said ah but it goes off fast, so no, you all get small packs, lots of bottles. One of the bottles is copper powder, and B, and the x-ray machine go mental at such solid-looking things as copper powder even in checked luggage hence you can't take it on a plane else you'll be hauled off the plane to explain wtf like one guy on here a while back.

You absolutely need some help, even if it's just one person to mix the stuff. I used a roller on a stick to apply, big catamaran 50ft, one guy mixed while i slapped it on and just keep going and going round and round, as the old stuff gets tacky the new can go on half an hour later - about the time it takes to get round the boat, just like in the video. A mix lasts 5-10 mins max, i had about 30 mix packs but only put on about 25, keeping a few back partly for touch-up and partly cos I was on to the fifth coat. I did extra at waterline and near gen outlet.

The stuff start light brown er coppery colour and turns darker brown when set. It needs three days to dry off, i gave it 2 in hot conditions, patched a bit under the (few) supports and slung it in the water.

It's sposed to go green quite quickly and it's this copper oxide that repels the buildup of crustaceans - a big problem in the med especially. If people say oh but the boat went all slimy - that's not really what it was design against.

A year later and it was quite greenish tinge but wasn't very green really, so i pulled it out in lanzrote again, anodes etc, and the same guys with those power sanders 40grits gave it a good going over, not too much, and then i sprayed it with mild dilute acid, oxalic i think and all went lovely green, no problem at all. The following year i primered the saildrives and did them, everything blathered in copper coat and very little fouling and of course, any fouling that there was could be wiped away.

If it's orange peely it's been sprayed and not yet sanded - but you can't sand it for quite a while and def not after just 3 days - it's dry but not hard as heck which it neeeds to be to use a sander. Mine was ripply with lots of large rubbishy looking dribbles where i had applied it a bit too thick but who cares, it's not exactly gonna slow the boat much (actually the boat went fast as heck afterwards) and anyways, you get it sanded the next year so no orange peel and/or no dribbles.

I was in warmer waters and with living aboard the fouling isn't too much of an issue cos you can get a big 6 or 9inch scraper and whoosh it all off nice and quick anyway. Those goose barnacles frinstance don't have a problem attaching to copper coat, and if there's some slime the other barnies can attach to that, including the ouch stinging type. Although i suppose you do get used to the idea of the boat being utterly clean underneath, not oh well not that bad.

No doubt it would have lasted 10years and i woulda thought you could just extra clean the boat and apply some more later - i did some biggish patches to cover the odd underwater swipe from stuff, blended in a few months later.

So, yup, i think it good stuff. The tech guys are nice at AMC, and yes you could use almost any suitable underwater paint and add some copper powder, altho AMC reckon that the epoxy trick that they have perfected is getting the epoxy just right to hold the copper particles but flexy enough for boats etc. etc.

 

[FullCircle]

Top answer Mat, cheers

 

[horatio_nelson]

^^ wot he said