The price of antifouling

[Telstar26]

I was browsing some of my Dad's files and came across this Blakes Marine Paints price list from 1989.

It has the price of Tiger Cruising antifouling (2.5l) as £44.00 + 15% VAT

Allowing for inflation, that would now be £112 + 20% VAT = £134 but the equivalent Hempel Tiger Xtra is now around £85. So I'll bear that in mind next time I have to fork out - it's relatively cheap!

Actually, I don't why he was looking at antifouling as the boat he bought - a Parker 21 which I now sail - was Coppercoated anyway.

 

[Neeves]

He was simply re-affirming that he made a wise choice.

Jonathan

 

[RunAgroundHard]

International Cruiser 250, 3 litre tin was only £75 pounds a tin from Cactus marine. I get just over 2 years out of my anti fouling on the West Coast of Scotland. I use 2.5 tins. That is good value to me.

 

[Stemar]

I wouldn't begrudge the price - even the 1989 one - if the bloody stuff worked.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

Apparently the cost of buying Coppercoat has gone up dramatically .

 

[lydiamight]

Average price of coper per ton

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Even when £800 lift and haul out is factored in every two years, copper cote should still be attractive. All that is needed for a CC bottom is a drying space to reactivate, I still need to haul out to paint.

I am not convinced it is a sound invest on my old hull, 1974 launch, as the epoxy failing is a high risk due to moisture that will not dry out.

 

[john_morris_uk]

I just went try to get some propellor antifouling. Admittedly I’m in Saint Kitts in the Caribbean where prices are a bit higher than mainland Europe but even so I was staggered by the price they were suggesting. They didn’t have the spray on stuff that I was looking for, but they offered me SpeedProp and before any discounts were applied the equivalent price in Sterling Was nearly £800. This is for a half litre tin! Admittedly it comes with primer and various special wipes and lots of instructions as to how you shouldn’t touch the metal once you’ve cleaned it and so on, but after discounts for being in transit etc it was still nearly £600. I said I’d carry on snorkelling with the Scotch-Brite pad.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

A wise decision in those waters.

 

[Sailing steve]

I wouldn't begrudge the price - even the 1989 one - if the bloody stuff worked.

Neither would I because I remember it used to work very well indeed.

But thanks to nanny state legislation restricting the most effective biocides to the commercial sector and water companies regularly enriching our coastal waters with raw sewage and climate change causing sea temperatures to rise the wretched stuff available to the leisure market is almost useless now.

Mind you, I'll bet all the UK boatyards and marina businesses are practically wetting themselves with excitement at the extra revenue stream they can extract out of us poor boat owners as we're now obliged to fork out for two or three lifts and scrubs every season whereas in the past when antifoul did actually do what it said on the tin there was never any need to do so.

 

[matt1]

Having spent £28 on 2.5 ltrs of Dulux emulsion when doing some decorating recently, it occurred to me that in relative terms antifouling had become cheaper

 

[Sailing steve]

Having spent £28 on 2.5 ltrs of Dulux emulsion when doing some decorating recently, it occurred to me that in relative terms antifouling had become cheaper

Yeahbutt I'll bet you a pint your tin of emulsion will do what it's meant to do for several years and not just a few weeks.

 

[Sandy]

Mind you, I'll bet all the UK boatyards and marina businesses are practically wetting themselves with excitement at the extra revenue stream they can extract out of us poor boat owners as we're now obliged to fork out for two or three lifts and scrubs every season whereas in the past when antifoul did actually do what it said on the tin there was never any need to do so.

Why do you need a lift? Any scrubbing posts or sandy beaches nearby?

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Neither would I because I remember it used to work very well indeed.

But thanks to nanny state legislation restricting the most effective biocides to the commercial sector and water companies regularly enriching our coastal waters with raw sewage and climate change causing sea temperatures to rise the wretched stuff available to the leisure market is almost useless now.

Mind you, I'll bet all the UK boatyards and marina businesses are practically wetting themselves with excitement at the extra revenue stream they can extract out of us poor boat owners as we're now obliged to fork out for two or three lifts and scrubs every season whereas in the past when antifoul did actually do what it said on the tin there was never any need to do so.

I get two years out of the "leisure market" International Cruiser 250, the "nanny state" replacement for Cruiser Uno, tested over many years. My experience is that this product works well for my conditions.

 

[justanothersailboat]

Yeahbutt I'll bet you a pint your tin of emulsion will do what it's meant to do for several years and not just a few weeks.

A lot of longer-life kinds of house paint also got replaced with shorter-life ones. Many exterior decorators' paints now go flaky so quickly that they might even make good ablative antifouling!

I'm almost daft enough to take this thread as a challenge to try painting my hull and keels with the cheapest matt emulsion I can find. My last can of Seajet Grand Poobah did so badly that I seriously wonder how it would compare.

 

[Slowtack]

Using Cruiser 250...two coats.... I need a mid season patch up... Always on moorings so no fender wear...

 

[Lucky Duck]

How would fenders come into contact with anti-fouling?

 

[justanothersailboat]

I don't know, but one time I returned to my boat (on a buoy) to find bright blue antifoul smeared all the way along my rubbing strake on both sides. So, scary things CAN happen when you're not looking!

 

[Slowtack]

How would fenders come into contact with anti-fouling?

Well its happened to me from other boats rafting alongside...

 

[Sailing steve]

Why do you need a lift? Any scrubbing posts or sandy beaches nearby?

I've scrubbed off myself and paid for a lift too. Either way it's precious sailing time and money wasted.

My point is this frequent scrubbing malarkey wasn't a thing twenty so years ago and practically any mid priced antifoul would keep a hull clean for a whole season even on the hopelessly slow boat I had back then.

Compare that with the situation now. I did 3 scrubs last year and when lifted in September the hull was once again a forest of slime and weeds and it's not just me either as almost every boat I passed had a beard of weed and slime on the waterline toward the end of the season.

Paying £100+ for a tin of antifoul - I've tried 5 different ones now- that performs so poorly just isn't acceptable IMO.