Propspeed - any good?

Excellent in med. Props were mostly clean after a full year. Must be properly applied. But it's a crazy price, making it cheaper to hire a diver a few times mid season (€1000+vat for my boat).
 
Didnt work for me in Majorca. I paid a lot of money to have it professionally applied and within weeks it was peeling off the props
 
Deleted User said:
Didnt work for me in Majorca. I paid a lot of money to have it professionally applied and within weeks it was peeling off the props
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It's widely said to be v sensitive to application technique. I have no idea why; that's just what boatyards say and is consistent with fact (I think but will happily be corrected) you can't buy it retail. Mine was still going strong after a year.
 
Same feedback re Copper Coat. I had a good experience as it was applied by the factory indoors. Those who claim it's not great probably experienced poor application of the process
 
jfm said:
It's widely said to be v sensitive to application technique. I have no idea why; that's just what boatyards say and is consistent with fact (I think but will happily be corrected) you can't buy it retail. Mine was still going strong after a year.
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Problem is that you've got no comeback. In my case, the Propspeed treatment was applied by a yard recommended by Propspeed and the work was supervised by the local Propspeed dealer and yet within weeks it was peeling off. I did go back to both the yard and the dealer but their line was that the treatment had been applied as recommended by the manufacturer and that was that. As you say its probably cheaper to pay a diver 3-4 times a year to clean your sterngear and in any case youre probably going to have to employ a diver regularly to clean the bow and stern thrusters anyway
 
Had it applied by a well known Solent-based yard, boat was inside, I was told everything done as per manufacturer's instructions.
Failed to work - after a few months, lots of growth slowing us down. Yard manager's comment was that it was "as if nothing was applied".
I obviously only heard the yard's side, but sounded like manufacturer blamed yard and vice versa.
Had to threaten small claims court to get money back... yard agreed to refund as clearly not fit for purpose / not delivering the benefits on the brochure...
 
Thanks for the feedback albeit a bit mixed. We've decided to give it a go and coat the shaft and props now and traditionally anti foul the p-brackets, rudders and tabs. This will be a lower cost test and we'll take a view on the results in 12 months and potentially do everything next year if it works.
 
I am seeing some very positive results from Aquacote Prop.
After a recent dive on the boat, the P-brackets were described as an octopuses' garden while the props were clean.

This is in the botanical super nursery of SCM
 
Propspeed is very good, but as JFM right says very sensible to application and launching times after doing so.
You miss this a bit and it goes awfully wrong.

Have applied it on customers craft and was always greatly satisfied after a year plus in the water.
There is a competing product now but can't figure the name.
 
This Predator 56 had been in the water for 1 year with normal use last season then left for the winter. The boat is based in Puerto Portals Mallorca and has not had the props or pods cleaned.
 

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Propspeed failures are very very frequent, you can ask any diver who's not on payroll to comment on this, the reasons for the failure are not exactly transparent as it is the exact same qualified shipyard workers who apply it every time, so it is not because of poor application! It is not due to cavitation as the exact same blistering and peeling are evident on the flaps, brackets, and rudders that are not subject to cavitation! So 2 out of the 2 reasons everyone gives are lies!

I don't want to give a lot of detail here but just stay clear of propspeed, propone, propgold, pellerclean, propeller coat e.t.c. any clear silicone that is applied over a yellow etching primer is roughly the same formulation, one is a copy of the other, you can check the MSDS for the components, these are all designed to fail in the first season.

Ok I don't mean designed by choice, it's just that they can't come up with something better.
 
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A number of friends and I have used Velox Plus very successfully in the Med. It's cheap, easy to apply and seems to stick quite well (even on my planing boat S/S props). In fact, despite standing unused for weeks on end and in warm water, the prop fouling is virtually non-existent.

I really can't see why anyone would pay £1000 plus for Propseed if it's no better.
 
petem said:
A number of friends and I have used Velox Plus very successfully in the Med. It's cheap, easy to apply and seems to stick quite well (even on my planing boat S/S props). In fact, despite standing unused for weeks on end and in warm water, the prop fouling is virtually non-existent.

I really can't see why anyone would pay £1000 plus for Propseed if it's no better.
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Velox fails a lot too but it's cheaper so it's easier to justify the cost, I guess.

btw plastic is better than s/s and s/s is better than bronze in terms of coating longevity underwater because bronze corrodes a lot faster than s/s
 
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I have posted these pic before and it was the first time for me professionally applied by a top Italian yard .It wasn’t expensive iirc something like €200 ish .Covid travel restrictions etc prevented my usual DIY approach this season .
Must say what ever it is / was it worked fantastically.Med Liguria area .
Sort of gained an extra 2 knots with the smoothness .
They will be doing it again .
A1D37630-74F2-41EA-B60C-A008EDD84903.jpeg
You can see a gold sort of primer .The AF is the green stuff .
491C4814-2450-4A65-8F13-EEF5422386AF.jpeg

Calibre of the yard below ……they are used to frying bigger fish so assume they know there onions re boat maintenance.

47C53FED-52F5-47F5-A357-89A4342135DB.jpeg
 
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