Silicone antifouling (Boatscrubber stuff)

[Cutter]

Have searched (ps why is the search engine so archaic?) and see last post was in December. May need to take off the silicone based antifoul and go back to toxic paint. Anyone any experience of removing this stuff - does it need to be blasted off. Was going to leave it for another season but the boat is growing patches of shellfish on hull according to diver. Did have the hull blasted clean prior to silicone paint going on so anxious to avoid more expense if possible. The folk selling antifoul (Blakes) at LIBS thought would need all traces removing before putting anything else on.
Has anyone any experience of taking this off?

 

[mobeydick]

Why, may I ask? Doesnt the regular scrubbing+antifould work, or have they stopped doing it?

 

[Cutter]

Boatscrubber went into liquidation (again) and original surface was for three years. With my mollusc farm I thought I might need to go toxic again.

 

[boatmike]

You have just hit the main problem with the ***** stuff I am afraid. Very difficult to get it off! Don't blast it for gawds sake, you will only spread it around. You could try high pressure steam blasting but that costs money I am afraid. Depends on the formulation, but I would try careful use of paint stripper like nitromors but get it off and wash it down in small patches or it will eat your gel coat too.... Someone else might know of a solvent but I don't think there is one that wont attack your GRP..... Sorry to be negative /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Cutter]

great ! and there I was trying to be eco friendly

 

[robbieg]

I was thinking about this antifoul and asked boatscrubber how I would get it off again. I think the echo antifoul was a rebadged seajet product & I was told they produced a stripper which would get it off again. I would suggest contacting seajet to see it they can help.

 

[boatmike]

Actually I only have direct experience of it as applied to large ships and ferries. There we used a Jotun product which was pretty soft. There are various manufacturers but it was developed mainly for fast vessels. The experience was that it would still foul if the vessel was left stationary for any time, but a good blast at 20 knots would clean it off. The general concensus in the industry was that you needed fairly constant use at 15 knots plus to keep it clean and it would then stay that way unless damaged allowing the vessel to avoid dry docking to re-antifoul. It also gave a marginal improvement in fuel efficiency and/or speed. At speeds under 15 knots it inhibits growth for a time but is really not good long term as you have found out. I have only had to completely strip one hull of the stuff, and that was steel so we used heat and scrapers at first when it came off in big sheets. In that case we re-antifouled with the same stuff though so removing the residual film was unnecessary. This might be a way for you to shift the majority of it. What about those clever wallpaper stripper things, or a heat gun and scraper?
You still need to remove the residue afterwards though or nothing else will stick afterwards. I would add that my experience may be out of date as I have been retired from shipbuilding for 4 years now but I don't think much has changed /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[pvb]

Talk to Seajet...

I believe the Boatscrubber antifouling was called "EcoAntifouling", and might have been the same product as Seajet's 036 Shogun Eco, but this product is not featured on Seajet's website (although according to this YBW news item it is available). I think you need to talk to Seajet and find out if they supplied the Boatscrubber stuff. The dreadful Seajet website mentions an antifouling remover called Seajet 361.

 

[Cutter]

Re: Talk to Seajet...

Thanks for these suggestions
Will take boat over to East Cowes and have a proper walk round underneath - only once seen 15kn on the clock and was concentrating too hard to see if the weed was coming off!

 

[davies]

Just done it

I've just completed taking the boatscrubber silicone paint + the coloured base layer off Amoret (Rustler 36). Using a tungsten carbide scraper (Screwfix do a suitable one) it took me three days. Don't use a steel scraper - it will break your heart.