To antifoul or not to antifoul?

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vertford

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I am thinking about what my options are regards antifouling my new, old boat, a 25ft Pageant. She is due out for some work and will be jet washed off. Time constraints and distance might limit my chances to do a "full" antifoul before she goes to her new mooring e.g rub down and antifoul.

Can I get away with no, or rather the residual level of previous antifoul, left after the jetwashing?

Does it "harm" the boat to be without antifoul for about about 7 months on a swinging mooring in an estuary? I would look to do a full antifoul after lifting out in the winter this year when she is closer to home.

Thanks for any tips/horror stories.

Richard
 
I raced on a boat that was set up to be dry-sailed with a polished hull & no anti-foul. However she ended up being kept in the water for about four months. We had to lift about every two or three weeks for a pressure wash to keep the hull clean.
 
Hello. I was in a similar position 2008/2009. I didn't anti-foul all last season as I wanted to get the hull sand blasted. She spent all season with 2007/2008 antifoul (Jotun I think) I scrubbed her off twice. The second time was nasty having gone through the Summer and one of the worst fouling seasons ever. It all came off though with a preasure washer. She was lifted out in Nov (last scrub off Aug) and had a few barnacles and a little slime. There was no damage to the hull. If I was you I'd try and get at least one coat on just to ease scrubbing off. Apart from that I wouldn't worry about it too much.
 
Umm, interesting question. I guess the anser to all that is, err 'maybe'.

Residual level of antifouling? As a general rule of thumb, I find that each scrub leaves me with diminishing returns on the strength of the anti-foul. A jet-wash 'generally' will be less abrasive than an actual scrub so it won't be a total disaster.

Then there is the area in which your swinging mooring is situated. If it has some fresh water regularly coming down and your mooring tends to be in that flow of fresh water, fouling will be considerably reduced. If on the other hand you are like me in a small creek off the estuary where there is only salt water, then fouling may well be high. I need three scrubs a year even with a properly applied two coats of a particular make of anti-foul - that's after the using of various brands with various success.

Will it harm the boat. Weeelll. At least its not wood so you don't need protection against marine borers like gribble as I do. That does need an effective coating as protection. But any growth will slow you and ruin yourenjoyment of sailing to some extent. It will also increase your fuel consumption but these may not be to the extent that you become concerned about them. Assume your existing anti-foul is completely shot and that you are moored in a high fouling area. Expect barnacles, weed and slime everywhere which will require effort to remove. Actual damage - perhaps not.

How difficult is it to re-anti-foul at the moment. If after the jet-wash you have a well adhering coating of the old stuff which is not built up into an obvious crust and terribly uneven, try and give it a coat (or two). Bear in mind that weed and barnacle growth will be v low at the moment but reach its peak in the second half of the summer.

So you see 'maybe'. PS sage advice on AF is that you should be careful rubbing it down, never do it dry as you will breath in the dust.
 
Horses and courses!

Where I am, anti-fouling every other year is fine. The marina has a significant fresh-water input, and so is not congenial to most of the fouling organisms - too fresh for the salt-water ones, too salt for the fresh-water ones! But other places, leave it for 6 months and you'll be dragging something like the Amazon rain-forest around.

There are surely two things here. Anti-fouling has two purposes, only one of which is relevant to GRP.

1) It prevents wood eating organisms from getting into the planking of a wooden boat. Not relevant in the northern parts of the UK, because only the South coast is warm enough for that kind of thing - gribble and teredo, I think. And any fresh water stops them in their tracks - both are (I think) killed by fresh water.

2) It stops the build-up of weed and other things growing on the surface of the hull. This isn't doing the hull any harm - but it IS slowing you down vastly!

It is noteworthy that copper cladding - the first form of anti-fouling - was adopted by the Royal Navy in the 18th century primarily so the ships would go faster - increasing the life of the hull was a side-benefit.
 
If the jet wash is reasonable you can probably get by without rubbing down. Just roller on a coat of fresh antifoul, maybe a couple of hours work. If even that is too long then at least run around the water line with a roller.
Would it not be possible to dry out on a beach somewhere in the early season and give it a quick scrub and antifoul? Not much grows until June/July when the water warms up.
 
vertford said:
I am thinking about what my options are regards antifouling my new, old boat, a 25ft Pageant. She is due out for some work and will be jet washed off. Time constraints and distance might limit my chances to do a "full" antifoul before she goes to her new mooring e.g rub down and antifoul.

Can I get away with no, or rather the residual level of previous antifoul, left after the jetwashing?

Does it "harm" the boat to be without antifoul for about about 7 months on a swinging mooring in an estuary? I would look to do a full antifoul after lifting out in the winter this year when she is closer to home.

Thanks for any tips/horror stories.

Richard
Click to expand...

i dont understand your time constaints, I own a 25ft boat and it only takes me about an hour to antifoul surely you have an hour to spare or even a half hour for one coat ?
 
vertford said:
Does it "harm" the boat to be without antifoul for about about 7 months on a swinging mooring in an estuary? I would look to do a full antifoul after lifting out in the winter this year when she is closer to home.
Click to expand...

It depends very much on where she is, and what the fouling is like there. I based my boat at Crinan for five years once, without bringing here ashore. The first year, before launch, I gave here two coats of International CSC with three around the waterline and leading edges. She got a wee bit furry around the waterline, but nothing that wouldn't scrub off.

Into the canal for the winter and the fresh water killed everything sea-loving. Out again, and one coat of CSC between tides on the grid at Kilmelford. She got a wee bit furry around the waterline, but nothing that wouldn't scrub off.

Next three years, didn't bother with any antifouling - still with 6 months in fresh water. She got a wee bit furry around the waterline, but nothing that wouldn't scrub off.

She's now in Kirkcudbright and hasn't had antifouling for four years. I probably would, if I had had more time to sail, but the salinity changes really do seem to keep growth down. She'll be on the grid there as soon as this bl**dy winter lets up a bit, and I shall be interested to see how the bits I can't see afloat have done.
 
Anti fouling

Just as a matter of interest around here a lot of sun and warm water with nutrients means fouling is a real problem. I have seen trailer boats with a shiny gelcoat bottom be ruined in 2 weeks if left in the water without a/f. The barnacles are the problem as they seem to be able to grow into the gelcoat. Of course a coat of a/f will also ruin the look of the same boat so the only answer is to not leave it in the water.
An old coat of a/f means the bottom will not be harmed by further fouling on a f/g hull.

If you are willing to get in the water and scrub the hull in UK you might be OK without further a/f but weed and growth will certainly slow a boat down. (to the point of making it unmanageable especially under sail)

I antifoul my boat each spring. within 1 month I am scrubbing and by the end of summer it needs a scrub every week and a/f is rapidly disappearing. But as i said it is a real problem here. good luck olewill
 
Thanks for all advice/tips

Thanks for all the input. Like the tip about extra a/f on leading edges/waterline. My time restaints were due to the fact that the boat is in a very small yard (limited space on the hard) and not sure I would have had time to do the full "works" while in slings/hoist. As it happens they have
shuffled boats around and can fit me in. Impressed with the half hour timeframe.

Regards
Richard
 
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