Swing Mooring ~ Waterline Decision

tom52

tom52

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Its getting near to decision time again. For the last three winter lay ups I have considered raising my waterline by extending the antifouling. I need help deciding.

I am on a fairly lively Poole Harbour swing mooring. There is lots of lapping above the waterline that produces trailing weed after only a month or so afloat. Removing the weed several times a season is a pain. It involves inflating and launching the dinghy (the marina launch to take us to and from the mooring) and bobbing about in the wash of passing ferries and mobos whilst clinging painfully to the boat and getting very wet.

So far I have resisted raising the antifoul for fear of permanently disfiguring the boat by interfering with the designed waterline. I have a modest 1995 Moody with the characteristic double blue stripe just above the waterline and whilst others might consider her just another AWB and scoff, I think she is beautiful. At least she would be if it were not for the muck and weed around the waterline for most of the season!

I would value forumites opinions as to whether raising the waterline is a disfigurement or a practical solution and if I do go ahead can I use hard antifoul at the waterline and erodable for the rest as usual.

Thanks
 
where in Poole are you? I'm up at Hamworthy and don't get weed although by the end of the season it takes a while to get the crud off the gelcoat just above the waterline..
 
Me too. I had to do away with the white piece of gelcoat bewteen A/F and a blue vinyl strip. It does not look too bad, and certainly not as bad as the crud that was accumulating there.
 
I did a bit of both, removed the tramlines just about the waterline and used this area for a boot top. I also seal the gelcoat with turtlewax gelcoat sealer ( I used 3 coats just above the boot top ) in does not fix it completely but I only had a small amount by the end of the season last year. The sealer also stops a lot of the brown / green discoloration as well.
 
I've known several boats raise their antifouling waterline. Ours came a good few inches above the actual waterline and I am glad of it.

The main considerations IMHO are asethetic. If you have a boot topping line will it look bad to go up to it, or would you need to relocate it? Obviously that would be a lot more work - but if it's vinyl and tired anyway....

On our boat, a fat cat with slab sides, I like having black antifouling and having the paint go up higher actually makes the boat look better as the hull appears less deep - so on some boats a higher waterline can improve the look. In fact I think black is best for 'high' waterlines. If you favour that hideous mid blue colour that one sees so often then bear in mind it also discolours quite quickly and will make the boat look dirty - dark is best.
 
I know the difficulty well........our previous owner had taken the a/foul about five inches above the intended boot line and over the top of half of the blue hull stripes but worst of all he had used GREEN a/foul! I spent a hot summer weekend using afoul remover to get it off and I took the bootline back to where it is supposed to be. I do suffer a bit of above bootline growth at the stern so I brush regularly which is a pain to be honest but not sufficient of a pain to force me too overpaint the bootline!

A top tip for you though - if you want a white eroding a/foul at the bootline I thoroughly recommend Seajet Emporer. It is colour stable whereas other so called white a/f's go blue/green after a few weeks exposure to water. I have used Emporer for the last three years and it performs very well indeed.

rob
 
i did see someone on the forum write that they used a patio moss and weed killer spray, i must admit i did try some with very good results, the weed just comes off back to the painted finish.

I should say that its not going to be friendly to the marine life
 
[ QUOTE ]
I thoroughly recommend Seajet Emporer.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have no complaints about International's white boottopping which copes with occasional scrubbing without coming off - have only had to overcoat once in five years!
 
Use a gloss paint. I used Blakes yacht enamel. They do a boot topping paint as well.
Extend it about 4" above the waterline (provided that is accurate) or more if the staining is higher.
Strip back the antifoul below the waterline and apply the paint. Use masking tape.

Antifoul00.jpg


Antifoul01.jpg


Then antifoul up to and just over the paint. Use lightly applied masking tape once the gloss is dry.

Antifoul02.jpg



Do it this way because if you lap the paint over the top edge of the antifoul it creates a pathway for damp to penetrate behind the paint causing blisters.
Use a dark colour so you don't need to clean as often and being gloss it cleans easily.
 
I had exactly this problem.
I overpainted the the bottom stripe with antifouling. This worked well and, because the second stripe was still there the boat still looked ok. I have only used standard eroding antifoul (with no special prep) and it has taken over to such an extent that I cannot remember how it looked before. I guess it raised the "waterline" by about 4", this solved the problem almost totally (still a bit of weed now and again up under the tuck of the stern).
Using the erodable a/f means that you could probably go back if you hated it.
 
im doing this now on a moody 27. took the paint lines off cleaned the hull back raised the waterline with primocon (was low aft high fwd so raised 2 inches aft) i am arranging new stripes and then antifoul. My intention is to antifoul in Royal blue and then a 4 inch band in navy to make it pretty
 
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