Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
Fine if you are ‘laying up’ for some time but the boat is in commission all year round
Soaking green off ropes - Patio Magic, Vanish, and/or biological powder?
- Thread starter Babylon
- Start date
flaming
Well-Known Member
Fair comment.
Do you find you get the same sort of "greening" if the boat is used regularly?
LittleSister
Well-Known Member
Seems it might be too dangerous to use on paths, drives and, er, patios, where it will drain off and get into the soil and eventually rivers and/or water tables?
How does one properly use and dispose of the stuff, I ask as owner of a small container of the stuff?
dunedin
Well-Known Member
Certainly yes in Scotland around the areas that are near the deck. Hence a little brush with Patio Magic occasionally which sorts the problem.
lustyd
Well-Known Member
In commission doesn't always mean in use. Ours is in commission all year, we live on board. We still only sailed once between end of Oct and end of Feb this year due to extreme and constant weather so our ropes are green on the deck. As Dunedin said, a little patio magic when cleaning the deck sorts it out, and the deck was green too so needed doing.
johnalison
Well-Known Member
A late club member told me about a rope-cleaning attachment he had for a pressure-washer. He described it as a T-shaped plastic affair where you passed the line through the cross-piece with the washer attached to the base. I never got to hear about any results, though I think he had used it.It's tempting because it cleans the rope instantly, but it really wears it. Also, if done over a randomly coiled rope one ends up with banded ropes like Venice "paline"
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nevis768
Well-Known Member
No greening on ropes on my boat based on the Clyde, generally happens to boats which are left standing for long periods.
Sandydog2
Well-Known Member
Much better to use it for its intended purpose. It has a half life of between 5 and 17 days in soil. It degrades slower in sludge in water treatment plants because it’s anaerobic. The danger is to aquatic life because it’s an algaecide. It doesn’t affect plants.
Generally speaking it’s always better to use chemicals up properly than try to dispose of them.
thinwater
Well-Known Member
Of course, the best way to avoid green is to get the ropes to dry. One of the best ways, as with canvas, is to treat them with a water repellent. They don't exactly stay dry, but they don't absorb as much and dry faster. Less moss. They also give the rope a nice hand, like using fabric softener, but much more durable. Just let it soak in a bucket, adding a little more to the dregs with each rope, until you are done. And forget the post-rinse stuff. Also keeps ropes from freezing, for you real diehards (I use it on my ice climbing/mountaineering ropes).
I don't know what is common in the UK, but Nikwax is good here.
I don't know what is common in the UK, but Nikwax is good here.
Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
The control lines for the jib cars are the worst, not helped by the boat having full length jib tracks (for no obvious reason as the standard sail plan is a 106% jib) which channels the water along their length.
laika
Well-Known Member
The renovo is heinously expensive but cheaper than new running rigging and I was seduced by the pbo test. I did not get magic results from soaking or soaking + washing. Less green yes. Not green no. As an experiment I left my kicker soaking for a week. That didn’t work either. And the stuff has a rather unpleasant smell.
flaming
Well-Known Member
I used to use a bungee tie to lift them off the deck on Dad's boat. On my boat I changed how they are attached to the car so that I can remove them when the boat sits for any length of time. They used to be spliced directly to the car, and one winter just destroyed them.
Ceirwan
Well-Known Member
A bit of PVC piping cut in half and pushed under led aft control lines (or any other lines that need to be kept of the deck) works well. Doesn't look super elegant, but it is effective.
lustyd
Well-Known Member
The boat next to us in Haslar has done this, it took me two days to work out what the pipe was for!
Roberto
Well-Known Member
RunAgroundHard
Well-Known Member
That is exactly my experience. I wouldn't buy it again as washing machine and washing powder worked.
ducked
Well-Known Member
That WYX laundry cleanser disinfectant seems to have worked, and as another quaternary ammonium compound might be an alternative to Patio Magic, if one needed an actual biocide.
I suppose any residues are less likely to encourage re-growth, as detergent phosphates might.
The packaging stresses bacteria, funghi and of course viruses as target organisms, which are likely to be a better domestic sell than algae, but its unlikely its inactive against algae.
(Incidentally up-thread somewhere its stated Patio Magic doesnt affect plants. This is unlikely too, since algae are plants.}
Er indoors has a bewildering (and I'll bet expensive) variety of bottles next to the washing machine. Back in Taiwan I bought a box of local powder shortly after arrival and still had about a quarter of it left 15 or so years later when I left the country. I cut the ridiculously high recommended dosage to about a tenth and it still seemed to work ok.
I suppose any residues are less likely to encourage re-growth, as detergent phosphates might.
The packaging stresses bacteria, funghi and of course viruses as target organisms, which are likely to be a better domestic sell than algae, but its unlikely its inactive against algae.
(Incidentally up-thread somewhere its stated Patio Magic doesnt affect plants. This is unlikely too, since algae are plants.}
Er indoors has a bewildering (and I'll bet expensive) variety of bottles next to the washing machine. Back in Taiwan I bought a box of local powder shortly after arrival and still had about a quarter of it left 15 or so years later when I left the country. I cut the ridiculously high recommended dosage to about a tenth and it still seemed to work ok.
ducked
Well-Known Member
Might be worth buying green running rigging in the first place.
This would reduce the cosmetic peer pressure, if one was sensitive to such, and should also reduce the available photosynthetic radiation in the core of the rope
This would reduce the cosmetic peer pressure, if one was sensitive to such, and should also reduce the available photosynthetic radiation in the core of the rope
Sandydog2
Well-Known Member
I meant when used as instructed on the product. It kills single cell organisms by disrupting the membrane. In normal use it doesn’t scorch the plants around a patio.
Benzalkonium chloride is in a vast range of products - eye drops, nose drops, mouth wash, athletes foot cream. I’m only saying it is best used according to the label.
ducked
Well-Known Member
Yes, I suppose higher plants are better protected, waxy cuticles on leaves and such. Id expect roots to still be quite vulnerable, but some of the stuff probably binds to soil, and sub-fatal root damage might be unseen anyway.
I might try this laundry stuff on my teak toe rails, which are showing some re-greening despite my sump oil treatment. Jeff Goldblum quote probably applies. IIRC some unicellular algae (Chlorrella sp., for. example) have really tough cell walls, yeast stylee, and might be rather hard to kill.
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