Itchenor weedy wonderings

[wiggy]

Am about to antifoul having removred back to bare hull. Any recomendations for a cheap antifouling that will keep the weed at bay on a swinging mooring at Itchenor. Would a hard one work and how do you eventually take these off?

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[oldharry]

Of the soft antifouls, Blakes Tiger (or whatever its called now) normally seems to work best in that end of the Harbour.

Hard antifouls are only worth the extra cost and work if you have a fast boat, or spend extended periods out of the water like a trailer sailer. Soft ones will either erode too quickly or dry it and become ineffective in these applications.

Racing boys like hard AF because it can be polished up to give that extra .5% speed.

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[StephenSails]

A mooring at Itchenor will mean that your boat will travel through the water for many miles per day with the tide so I would recomend that you put quite a lot of paint on. My friend has Internation Micron Optima and he has not needed to reantifoul for 2 seasons becuase it works so well, his boat is in the reach at Itchenor. Its not cheap but it really does work! International Micron Extra and Blakes Hard Racing have worked really well on customers boats I have in Bosham Channel.

Cheers



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[richardabeattie]

If you have a bilge keeler it is far simpler to use no antifouling at all. It takes two days to scrape down and renew it, costs the thick end of £100 and, since the demise of TBT antifoulings, never works very well. Assuming you haul out for the winter just pressure hose it clean and relaunch bare. Then once or possibly twice each summer dry out on a sand bank and give it the back of the broom for half an hour. Easier, cheaper and environmentally friendly.

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[brianhumber]

Also have mooring here. If you are in from Spring to late Autumn you need three coats of the stronger types( thus expensive) due to the strong tides. Doing this I get slime but no barnacles or weed. Using cheap muck such as XM was a total failure, and I know Andy the ferry man had the same exprience with the stuff.

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[bob26]

According to one theory, the best pre-launch antifoul is none at all. Rely upon last year's for the first few months and scrub-off and re-antifoul at Whitsun (which of course is easily done if you can take the ground). The basis for this theory - for which I cannot vouch - is that barnacles seed early in the year and that is when they attach to your hull. They are not supposed to be free swimming after Whitsun so you remain barnacle free if you scrub them off then and the antifoul is at its most potent for the most rapid period of weed growth when the water is warmest. A scrub off in June anyway won't do any harm - unless of course you antifouled in February in which case you'll scrub all that expensive biocide off! I'd be interested if there are any barnaclologists (or on-line barnacles) out there who can comment on this theory.



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[wiggy]

Thanks, any other thoughts on the use of hard antifouling on swinging moorings?

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