Udder cream anyone???

P

phantomlady

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There be a lot of farmers down these 'ere parts and yesterday my skipper came back from the boatyard with tales of using cow udder cream on the prop and shaft to stop barnacle growth :eek:
Contains lanolin apparently.
I said it can't possibly work....it won't stay on.
What does everyone think??
(I know I'm right :) )
 
There was a tip in last months YM from a guy who says he's used it for the last decade or so, to great effect. On the strength of this I bought a tub at Mole Valley and will give it a go this season. Have tried everything else, so why not? Worst case is that I have to remove barnacles at the end of the season. For £8 I'm happy to experiment.

The added bonus is that I'll have the means on board to treat any cases of sore nipples that we encounter this year and will be more than happy to administer same! :rolleyes:
 
I saw the same tip and had also seen it somewhere else a few months earlier. I've never had any problems with growth on prop. of any boat I've owned. Just burnish the metal pre-launch and I only see a few tiny barnacles at end of the season.

However, we will spend most of this summer in the Rias. When you see acres of Viveros and boats piled high harvesting them you start to think that molluscs will be more of a problem than usual. So I've bought some Equimins uddder cream to try on the propeller.

I couldn't find a datasheet but photographs of the tubs indicated that it contained:
Lanolin, Cetrimide, Bactericide, Aloe Vera, Zinc, Castor Oil and Tea Tree Oil

I think that Cetrimide and Zinc look like the main active ingredients likely to affect marine organisms.

Cetrimide: Alkyltrimethylammonium bromide
I suspect that this will be similar to Benzalkonium Chloride in killing algae
These chemicals operate by disrupting micro-organisms' cell processes

Zinc:
Known to adversly affect molluscs (certainly studies with oysters showed marked reduction in shell growth)

I think that there is some logic in expecting Equimins to work. Of course, I don't know how quickly the active ingredients will leech out, but worth a few pounds to give it a try. A small quantity should go quite a long way so no need to buy a large tub.
 
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I did use Equimins on the prop. this year and think that it did help. However, I'm used to seeing very light fouling in Scottish waters and don't have experience of anything other than a very light coating. I usually just burnish the prop. and that's all I've ever needed.

I'd be interested to hear what anyone thinks about the very rough draft document here (http://www.mistroma1.webspace.virginmedia.com/UdderOintment.html). I'm afraid that I haven't found pre-launch and post pressure wash pictures yet. You can click to zoom the pictures and then use the icon at bottom right (or "f" key") to get full size. Pictures can be dragged around if you want to compare side by side.

Am I kidding myself that it had an effect or is this actually pretty good for the area?

N.B. The Galician coast produces more than 95% of Spanish mussel production (>200,000 tonnes annually). So I was expecting heavy growth on the prop. & p-bracket.
 
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We also tried lanolin, and wiped it down the leafing edges, rudder, keels etc, as posted earlier - areas with lanolin had the most growth. Consequently the lubrication effect, stopping anything sticking to it, was non existent - it appeared to provide a good feeding ground, I am beaching our cat about every 3 months here and need scrape down the prop each time. Next time we are out for long enough we will try a molybdenum disulphide grease and some sort of stove black (something with graphite in it). If we find udder cream we will try that as well (the idea of something with an active ingredient has appeal).

So far the only product with any real effect is Prop Speed - but I am averse to paying so much for so little (especially as we can beach easily). We have also found that Prop Speed can have growth and assume if the coating gets damaged the broken area offers a foot hold for barnacles and attempts to remove the barnacles only makes the damage worse.

Feldtens prop coating did not work for us, but (according to the distributors) does work on power boats, whose props turn faster and are used more than ours.

Jonathan
 
I smear on something called "Underwater Oil", IIRC by Vickers? which is a sort of sticky grease. I've had no growth of any kind on prop since using it. Boat only in the water for six months each year.
 
Mistroma said:
I'd be interested to hear what anyone thinks about the very rough draft document here (http://www.mistroma1.webspace.virginmedia.com/UdderOintment.html). QUOTE]

Good heavens that must really reduce the propulsion from your prop.

Just a few small barnacles caused a knot off the top motoring speed of my pals Jeanneau 37.

After donning mask and snorkel and a scrape off with a spatula it made a big difference.

Suggest this to be done often if you get that much fouling but those on your prop look really mean critters that will hang on tight.

Udder/teat cream is really worth a try yet burnishing to a real shine is worth it first I reckon.

Best of luck, I'm interested in hearing all the results, I'm off to the agri' suppliers too.

S.
Click to expand...
 
Not many comments about pictures here http://www.mistroma1.webspace.virginmedia.com/UdderOintment.html so I still don't have much feedback to judge success.

One comment to say that lanolin didn't work. Lanolin is just used to hold the active ingredients in place. It wasn't exactly a big surprise that it was pretty useless without something extra to deter growth.

I was also worried about balance issues if one blade wasn't treated and that why I only left the shaft untreated. Waxoyl sounds as if it might work and it doesn't seem to have just provided nutrition for sea life. I think that I have some Waxoyl in the garage and might use it on one side of the p-bracket to compare with Equimins. I'll probable put Equimins on the other side plus prop. and shaft.


Scotty_Tradewind said:
Good heavens that must really reduce the propulsion from your prop.....
Click to expand...

I assume this remark relates to the extreme fouling seen on a local boat. Unfortunately, I have no idea how long that boat had been afloat. The owner of a Moody 44 launched and lifted at roughly similar times reported an awful lot of goose barnacles growing around shaft and propeller. Unfortunately, he'd left the boat in a marina for 3-4 weeks mid - late season and that might have caused more growth. Even so, it was a pity that he didn't take pictures to allow comparison as I could only guess what he meant by "an awful lot".
 
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I have tried the Equinims cream at Easter this season, and when she was lifted and scrubbed a few weeks ago the prop was in good shape, so reapplied it and she went back in. Certainly it was better than the red propshield wax I had used previously, and much easier to apply.
 
In his book ' Very Willing Griffin ' about his taking a Hunter 19 across in the 1972 OSTAR, the late ( for other reasons ) David Blagden mentions that during his preparations for the race a friend who was a Vet gave him a large tub of Cows' Udder Cream, swearing it's the same stuff as Savlon but much cheaper.
 
This takes me back, my Mother always used udder cream on our bottoms when we were in nappies, my father, who was a vet recommended it.
I can report that we never had any barnacle growth!
 
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