Silicone anti foulness

[Neeves]

I'm based in Australia and magazines like PBO arrive, late. This may have been a thread previously or maybe the ink is still wet.

Its an update on a comparison to conventional AF, using silicone, and in some respects competes with CC (as well as conventional AF

How Hempel's Silic One silicone antifouling performed over two years on my 27ft boat - Practical Boat Owner

Jonathan

I have no financial connection, in fact no connection at all, with anyone or anything mentioned.

 

[thinwater]

Intriguing. Thanks.

Downsides are a more involved change-over process (two different primers or strip it all the way down) and that you can't change back to conventional paint without a complete strip. But that's pare for the course with slick paints.

I looked at some of the tests, and one thing bothers me. This image (similar to others) is after 7 months, before and after wipe down. Did you notice that the un-painted strip between the panels is not fouled? If this were high-fouling waters it would have a beard (I've run these shorts of tests). Frankly, not much of a test at this location, for example.

Here is a very conventional paint, same test. Again, not much of a test. In fact, the fouling is so low they wasted their time running the tests or publishing the results IMO.

I would expect something more like this. (6 months in the Chesapeake Bay--the testing continued to 3 years). The unpainted areas are a mess.The good looking paints are by Total Boat and Pettit (there were some other good paints on other panels). We did test some slick paints, and they failed miserably. But we did not test Slick One. These photos are before wiping off; the good panels came clean.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Some Silic one testing in the Solent.
.

 

[Neeves]

If silicone was an outstanding success why does not every AF manufacturer have a product on the shelves at a chandler near you?

The test that I linked would encourage me to consider a silicone AF - except after years this is the first, and its a real standalone, test that is encouraging. The manufacturers have run tests, they don't publish their tests (the tests have sunk into oblivion). Its in the interests of the AF manufacturers to come up with an answer - and push aggressively. Maybe I spend too much time focussed on anchors

Commercial vessels, big ones - cruise ships, have tried silicones (as mentioned in the article) some, numbers unknown and a few years ago, have reverted to conventional AF.

The Clipper fleet chose CC, a well known member here has just recoated his 'ocean crossing' yacht with 5 coats of CC

I'd like, we would all like - an environmentally replacement to conventional AF - based on the sum of evidence over the years, more than a decade - I'm not convinced.

Jonathan

 

[Chiara’s slave]

We ripped that off, the boat has hard racing these days. I thought I’d lost my touch, but it was the paint. From zero to hero, we won first time out after replacing it.

 

[mrming]

We had this on a race boat, applied by the previous owner. Not impressed and it was very difficult to remove. I would avoid like the plague on any displacement speed boat. There is some anecdotal evidence that it works better on planing craft in regular use.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

We had this on a race boat, applied by the previous owner. Not impressed and it was very difficult to remove. I would avoid like the plague on any displacement speed boat. There is some anecdotal evidence that it works better on planing craft in regular use.

To describe the removal process as a pain in the arse is a bit like saying there was a waft of incense in the Sistine Chapel last month.

 

[Lucky Duck]

It’s intriguing that the owners of a modestly canvassed twin keeler had what seems to be the opposite experience although I think the article said they regularly beached it to scrub.

 

[thinwater]

In fact, this test image, called "a success," demonstrated that it was no better than no antifouling.

Look at the white stripes between the paint, before and after wiping down. No difference at all.

I'm at ~ 18 months with Total Boat Krypton (Chesapeake Bay--high fouling), which is a copper-free paint, and I'm doing quite well. If it is OK at summer's end, I will let it go through the winter (little growth when it's cold).

 

[Chiara’s slave]

It’s intriguing that the owners a modestly canvassed twin keeler had what seems to be the opposite experience although I think the article said they regularly beached it to scrub.

My boat’s previous owner had access to a free crane and jetwash. He didn’t have a problem either

 

[vyv_cox]

When I bought my first boat it was 10 years old and had never been antifouled. It had been berthed against a drying jetty at Fleetwood. The PO would brush it down monthly at low tide with a broom.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

When I bought my first boat it was 10 years old and had never been antifouled. It had been berthed against a drying jetty at Fleetwood. The PO would brush it down monthly at low tide with a broom.

Thanks for completing my point there. Silicone AF is no improvement on bare hull if it needs so much scrubbing/jetwashing.

 

[thinwater]

The water temperature makes a difference in terms of cleaning. In the summer, I don't mind a quick scrub. 27C water. In the off season the water can be 0-10C and the prospect is less attractive, even with a wet suit.

There are long handled cleaning tools using floats that are surprisingly effective. But they don't touch hard growth. And still a PITA.

 

[toothless]

I have it on my catalac. It grows a beard pretty quickly but a gentle sail and she's clean as a whistle. I haven't had to scrub her yet as just getting her moving peels the fouling off. I think it works pretty well.I hope it keeps behaving like this as I like the concept. It was a pain to apply, but that should only be a one off event.

The white lines between the antifoul on the test boards pictured above were painted with velox antifoul -they mention this in the article. So that does not represent 'no antifoul' as some are stating.

 

[Sandy]

The chap a few pontoons up had a very different view of he product, after an Atlantic Circuit he could not remove it fast enough.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

The chap a few pontoons up had a very different view of he product, after an Atlantic Circuit he could not remove it fast enough.

Nuff said.

 

[thinwater]

I have it on my catalac. It grows a beard pretty quickly but a gentle sail and she's clean as a whistle. I haven't had to scrub her yet as just getting her moving peels the fouling off. I think it works pretty well.I hope it keeps behaving like this as I like the concept. It was a pain to apply, but that should only be a one off event.

The white lines between the antifoul on the test boards pictured above were painted with velox antifoul -they mention this in the article. So that does not represent 'no antifoul' as some are stating.

Velox. Good catch. A silly thing to do, IMO. However, my testing of Velox showed that it does not repel fouling very well when stationary, so I still believe those were pretty low fouling waters. The Velox samples cleaned little easier, but they still grew a beard.

 

[vyv_cox]

Velox. Good catch. A silly thing to do, IMO. However, my testing of Velox showed that it does not repel fouling very well when stationary, so I still believe those were pretty low fouling waters. The Velox samples cleaned little easier, but they still grew a beard.

Velox was developed for the Mediterranean, where my experience is that it does pretty well. I have heard of several UK locations where its performance was distinctly poor.

My experience over some years is described here Propeller antifouling with Velox

 

[Neeves]

One of the criticisms of Silicone is that when you lift the vessel using slings the coating is insufficiently robust and the slings damage the coating.

On the test yacht, being a bilge Keeler, they would not need to lift in slings - just dry out and the vessel in the more recent pictures is lifted with securement inside the hull (like X Yachts used). If silicones work you still need to lift, for anodes, clean the prop - this was not done with external slings.

I appreciate that when you apply you are hoping for success. But when you remove silicones, like any silicones - nothing sticks to the ex siliconed 'cleaned' surface - which normally is not a major issue - it is if you need to prepare a large surface to apply a conventional AF.

Jonathan