The price of antifouling

We’ve always scrubbed, partly because we can, of course. But our antifoul performance has definitely fallen off over the years. We now have copper coat, which at least stays on the boat when you scrub it.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
We’ve always scrubbed, partly because we can, of course. But our antifoul performance has definitely fallen off over the years. We now have copper coat, which at least stays on the boat when you scrub it.
Click to expand...
I've always liked the idea of copperbot. Years ago, I met the guy who invented it.

It didn't ever quite work out for boats that I've owned, but I have use of a fast motorboat....25 knots....that it sticks to really well. In fact, perfectly. It's not a big fouling problem here like Northern waters, but even so it works just fine.
 
Last edited:
capnsensible said:
I've always liked the idea of copperbot. Years ago, I met the guy who invented it.

It didn't ever quite work out for boats that I've owned, but I have use of a fast motorboat....25 knots....that it sticks to really well. In fact, perfectly. It's not a big fouling problem here like Northern waters, but even so it works just fine.
Click to expand...
It absolutely does not stop slime, and shortly after, weed, grass and tubes from growing, here in uk. It requires a monthly scrub unless you're sailing in good wind frequently. And we will do an extra scrub if we are racing, when it doesn't fit with the once a month. But being able to put some elbow grease into it is good, and it is way better than not antifouling at all, and in my experience not really worse them modern A/Fs for our location, growth wise. We tried conventional, then went with copper coat. The bottom finish is exceptional, like ground glass. Though that too took some effort. We do well on handicap, I think primarily because we sail clean. Last time out we did the course in less than half the time of our 2nd place boat, LOL. But it was all uptide and upwind, so VMG had something to do with that too.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
It absolutely does not stop slime, and shortly after, weed, grass and tubes from growing, here in uk. It requires a monthly scrub unless you're sailing in good wind frequently. And we will do an extra scrub if we are racing, when it doesn't fit with the once a month. But being able to put some elbow grease into it is good, and it is way better than not antifouling at all, and in my experience not really worse them modern A/Fs for our location, growth wise. We tried conventional, then went with copper coat. The bottom finish is exceptional, like ground glass. Though that too took some effort. We do well on handicap, I think primarily because we sail clean. Last time out we did the course in less than half the time of our 2nd place boat, LOL. But it was all uptide and upwind, so VMG had something to do with that too.
Click to expand...
Sorry but it doesn't need a scrub every month as a Barbican 35 which he keeps on the hard wall from May-October has had it done couple years ago admittedly cost him £4000 but all he does is get hauled out end October and cleans the slime off , no growth whatsoever .
 
Poignard said:
Getting harder for us poor old pensioners to afford antifouling now the Winter Fuel Allowance has been stopped 😂
Click to expand...
You need a ‘Fit’broom .

It warms even as it smears the harmless paint around and bothers the barnacles

Surprisingly affordable , perhaps buy one for the missus too?
 
gaylord694 said:
No thanks sounds like it's in a terrible state
Click to expand...
Pretty good as long as it has regular scrubbing. I can’t see what you’re driving at telling me I’m wrong about needing to scrub. You have not the smallest clue about fouling conditions on our mooring. And you plainly don’t understand how important a clean boat is when you’re racing. If you want to win, mere perfection is the lowest point to aim at.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
Pretty good as long as it has regular scrubbing. I can’t see what you’re driving at telling me I’m wrong about needing to scrub. You have not the smallest clue about fouling conditions on our mooring. And you plainly don’t understand how important a clean boat is when you’re racing. If you want to win, mere perfection is the lowest point to aim at.
Click to expand...
Who mentioned anything about having a clue about where your mooring was .. . Your implementation was that copper coating needed scrubbing every month thus misleading people into possibly considering copper coating... . .... Unlike the guy who had a professional job done on his Barbican, you obviously didn't which as you pointed out I'm utterly surprised at considering you put so much emphasis on racing ..........I can only imagine results aren't a priority or concern to you
 
Last edited:
Misleading people? I just told them what is necessary to get good performance. It can be burnished flat, and scrubbed hard, unlike other fouling systems. And it’s no less poisonous than other modern antifouls. You don’t like it? Fair enough. It works for me, I get 3 or 4 days of perfect underwater surfaces after a scrub even if it doesn’t move much. More if we’re sailing. I have not found other coatings significantly better.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
Misleading people? I just told them what is necessary to get good performance. It can be burnished flat, and scrubbed hard, unlike other fouling systems. And it’s no less poisonous than other modern antifouls. You don’t like it? Fair enough. It works for me, I get 3 or 4 days of perfect underwater surfaces after a scrub even if it doesn’t move much. More if we’re sailing. I have not found other coatings significantly better.
Click to expand...
If it's put on correctly it shouldn't need to be scrubbed hard , burnished, sanded etc. I love it and if I had it done I'd get it done professionally so I wouldn't need to tit about with it.......And don't say oh well you don't get much fouling where your from because the Barbican 35 is moored up the east coast ! Something I think is very array with your coppercoat maybe it's the fact you've sanded it to death
 
gaylord694 said:
If it's put on correctly it shouldn't need to be scrubbed hard , burnished, sanded etc. I love it and if I had it done I'd get it done professionally so I wouldn't need to tit about with it.......And don't say oh well you don't get much fouling where your from because the Barbican 35 is moored up the east coast ! Something I think is very array with your coppercoat maybe it's the fact you've sanded it to death
Click to expand...
It’s been burnished once. Everything grows a beard round here. Even freshly burnished it slimes up. As I say, everything else does too and I am very happy with thr performance of my coppercoat. Maybe yours is slimy and you don’t notice. I swim under ours, I can assure you its not my favourite job, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t find it necessary.
 
Not a racer but a cruiser.
Yes, the Coppercoat does slime. However, a nice beat into a F4 and all is clean. Afraid I feel it far easier and more acceptable than swimming around and scrubbing 😀😃.
 
john_morris_uk said:
I just went try to get some propellor antifouling.
Click to expand...

Did you antifoul your prop in the UK? It's not something I've ever felt I need to do: I just clean up and grease the prop whenever I lift out to change anodes but I recognise things are different in the caribbean

Given all the folks saying their antifoul doesn't work I think I should feel lucky. I've had decent performance from the various generations of International Micron over the past 15 years and despite increasing environment friendliness haven't seen that drop off. My last lot of Micron 350 did decent service for 3 years in the water
 
SaltyC said:
Not a racer but a cruiser.
Yes, the Coppercoat does slime. However, a nice beat into a F4 and all is clean. Afraid I feel it far easier and more acceptable than swimming around and scrubbing 😀😃.
Click to expand...
If you’re just at the slime stage, that works, though not as clean as I like it to race with. There must be a lot of nutrients in the water at our mooring, in an estuary. It takes only a few days with a slime build up for bigger stuff to take root in the slime. That doesn’t come off so easily. We’ll burnish again before our spring relaunch, I daresay it’ll be better for a while.
 
Last edited:
I think I ended up moored in a bad spot last year and had to go several weeks without sailing at one point. My antifoul got covered in a thin film of silt, after which I don't think it would have mattered what it was. I am not sure what I will do this year, but the plan definitely includes more scrubbing and more rough sails to try to shake stuff off - I have pretty good evidence of this working. It's the perfect excuse! Sorry I can't be sociable this weekend dear, the wind is strong enough, I can't afford not to go sailing.
 
SaltyC said:
Not a racer but a cruiser.
Yes, the Coppercoat does slime. However, a nice beat into a F4 and all is clean. Afraid I feel it far easier and more acceptable than swimming around and scrubbing 😀😃.
Click to expand...
After a decent passage our Coppercoat is clean as a whistle. However we left the boat for some weeks in the lagoon in Sint Maarten and we had to pay a diver to scrub the bottom!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top