Ultrasonic antifouling

[jfm]

... but you antifouled the boat first, so it still doesn't tell us much. Most antifoul paints will still do a partial job after a year or two. The tests in the magazines have been entirely unscientific, so are largely meaningless, as they rely on the owner saying "well that's less fouling than I had last year with just the antifoul", which makes it subjective. The MBM (or was it MBY) test scraped a one foot square section of antifoul off, but then barely mentioned that test section in the results, although from the photo you could see it looked heavily fouled. They will report again on Motala when it comes out, but it's still got conventional antifoul on ?????

I suppose if they were scientists they wouldn't be writing for a magazine, so maybe they need some help in defining a meaningful test? As a minimum we need an unpainted hull with ultrasonic, an unpainted hull with no ultrasonic, and a hull painted with conventional antifoul, all moored in the same place. If the product worked it would be of immense interest to boaters, so worth the cost of a test like this.

Exactly Nick

FWIW, I hope I'll have some evidence, but it'll be a year from now. I have lots of photos from previous lift outs so can make a comparison, and it's the same berth as you know. But my tests will relate only to barnacles on props, becuase that's all I'm aiming to cure with usaf. I dont have any hull fouling anyway due to M66 (now M77) paint. So my test will be props with propspeed, vs props with nothing, vs props with usaf. Check back here February 2011

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

We kept our Sealine T51 (David knows her intimately - I believe) at Mercury just down the river from Motala's berth - our experience - hardly any barnacles - bit of weed - but nothing like Med growth.

It's the seeming lack of any evidence, anecdotal or scientific, on Med based results that make me dubious about ultrasonic systems. During my years cruising in the UK, I invariably used an eroding type antifoul which worked well enough such that I wouldn't have seen the point of ultrasonic systems. When somebody says they've spent a whole season in Med waters with a ultrasonic system and lost only a knot or two, then I'll be impressed.
jfm, how's the fitment of your system going?

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Sorry jfm, just seen that our posts crossed in the ether.

 

[jfm]

Sorry jfm, just seen that our posts crossed in the ether.

Yup, i haven't fitted it yet. I plan to do it at the next left out, in about a month.

Actually my usaf system is currently "installed", duck-tape-ishly, on woodie100's targa47 (which he doesn't know, till he reads this). The Targa has been picked on by 50 local (well 'ard) seagulls. They're creatures of habit, and ALL congregate on woodie's foredeck to chill for the afternoon. Every day. They hardly touch any other boats in a square mile of marina, just Woodie100's. The poor looker-after girl Jenny is going nuts because she's scrubbing off 3 tonnes of poop and regurgitated food for their young, every day. She's tried all the usual tricks: CDs dangled on string, cable ties, flappy things, those kiss-me-quick beach windmills that you buy in Blackpool, string, and so on. But these are specially mutated uber persistent seagulls, not your normal scaredycat variety.

So I thought these usafs will scare em off, in a nuclear kind of way. So I plugged the usaf thing in on Woodie's boat, placed the control box in his cockpit and placed the two vibrators on his foredeck, with the wires led thru the ajar sliding roof. Result? Next day 50 seagulls rocked up with an "Oooh, what new toy has Jenny got for us today?" look on their cocky little faces, and actually huddled around my USAF vibrators and shat all over them for about 3 hours. The fukcers.

 

[Hurricane]

Exactly Nick

FWIW, I hope I'll have some evidence, but it'll be a year from now. I have lots of photos from previous lift outs so can make a comparison, and it's the same berth as you know. But my tests will relate only to barnacles on props, becuase that's all I'm aiming to cure with usaf. I dont have any hull fouling anyway due to M66 (now M77) paint. So my test will be props with propspeed, vs props with nothing, vs props with usaf. Check back here February 2011

Just spoken to my dealer - no delivery date for Micron 77 yet.
He did think it would be within the month though.
I want to be sure that I've got some for when we drive out next month so I've agreed to use up some of the old Micron 66 stock. In fact to make the quantities, I'm having a couple of pots of blue and the rest in navy (my preferred colour). This way it should be easier to apply between coats and interesting to see how it wears - might look horrible though as it wears.

It appears that Micron 66 goes a bit "soapy" (in the words of his rep) in the fresher waters (estuaries etc). The new formula Micron 77 is designed to work in fresh water as well as sea water ------ apparently!!

Just a bit of latest info.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Ha, ha, if the seagulls love a bit of vibration, you can bet the barnacle critters will lap it up too. Every barnacle in Antibes is going to be partying on your props

 

[Nick_H]

Yup, i haven't fitted it yet. I plan to do it at the next left out, in about a month.

Actually my usaf system is currently "installed", duck-tape-ishly, on woodie100's targa47 (which he doesn't know, till he reads this). The Targa has been picked on by 50 local (well 'ard) seagulls. They're creatures of habit, and ALL congregate on woodie's foredeck to chill for the afternoon. Every day. They hardly touch any other boats in a square mile of marina, just Woodie100's. The poor looker-after girl Jenny is going nuts because she's scrubbing off 3 tonnes of poop and regurgitated food for their young, every day. She's tried all the usual tricks: CDs dangled on string, cable ties, flappy things, those kiss-me-quick beach windmills that you buy in Blackpool, string, and so on. But these are specially mutated uber persistent seagulls, not your normal scaredycat variety.

So I thought these usafs will scare em off, in a nuclear kind of way. So I plugged the usaf thing in on Woodie's boat, placed the control box in his cockpit and placed the two vibrators on his foredeck, with the wires led thru the ajar sliding roof. Result? Next day 50 seagulls rocked up with an "Oooh, what new toy has Jenny got for us today?" look on their cocky little faces, and actually huddled around my USAF vibrators and shat all over them for about 3 hours. The fukcers.

Brilliant! Don't try too hard to shift the seagulls off Woodie's boat though, cos they may come and shiit all over mine instead

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

Exactly Nick

FWIW, I hope I'll have some evidence, but it'll be a year from now. I have lots of photos from previous lift outs so can make a comparison, and it's the same berth as you know. But my tests will relate only to barnacles on props, becuase that's all I'm aiming to cure with usaf. I dont have any hull fouling anyway due to M66 (now M77) paint. So my test will be props with propspeed, vs props with nothing, vs props with usaf. Check back here February 2011

I will be interested to see your results. I had ultrasonic and propspeed on my prop, but still got a few barnacles.

 

[jfm]

Just spoken to my dealer - no delivery date for Micron 77 yet.
He did think it would be within the month though.
I want to be sure that I've got some for when we drive out next month so I've agreed to use up some of the old Micron 66 stock. In fact to make the quantities, I'm having a couple of pots of blue and the rest in navy (my preferred colour). This way it should be easier to apply between coats and interesting to see how it wears - might look horrible though as it wears.

It appears that Micron 66 goes a bit "soapy" (in the words of his rep) in the fresher waters (estuaries etc). The new formula Micron 77 is designed to work in fresh water as well as sea water ------ apparently!!

Just a bit of latest info.

Thanks Mike. I got same info from International - the benefits of M77 are mainly freshwater. So M66 will be fine if that's all that's available and I'll be happy to use it this year. It works for me, as per my recent pics

You sure you don't want to go for black?

 

[jfm]

I will be interested to see your results. I had ultrasonic and propspeed on my prop, but still got a few barnacles.

Oh, dont tell me that SB! I'd prefer a year of blissful ignorance I saw your rudder photo, thanks. Looked reasonably good, though as mentioned her many moboers care only about barnacles on props becuase there are paints that do the hull as well as u/sonic. Did you see my propspeed/M66 pictures? Link in case not

 

[jfm]

Ha, ha, if the seagulls love a bit of vibration, you can bet the barnacle critters will lap it up too. Every barnacle in Antibes is going to be partying on your props

I'd love to pick a fight with you Deleted User but truth is I bet you're right. The sodding seagulls loved them. (My mistake was I should have put the vibrators on SOMEONE ELSE'S boat ). I fear I'll be reporting lousy barnalce results in a year's time. Just remember I've said on here usaf is just an experiment to answer the Q (as far as I can) about its efficacy. I'm not pushing the product and should really have spent the £1800 on diesel. Curiousity is quite a powerful drug though!

 

[asm marine sonic uk]

Thank you for your comments, The reason why I didnt give out any website details was because our UK site is under re-constrution as is our head quarters website in Austraila.

Our transducers are stainless steel for more than the reason of durabililty, they are very powerful and plastic would not be able to cope over a period of time - this is not a copy of any other system, there is a full time professor in Austrailia constantly working on R and D, we have new products for larger yachts coming very soon.

The 90 day guarantee is that within 90 days of fitting ASM the hull will be clean of any fouling! Not that it will work for 90 days. You can fit asm to a fouled hull and it will clean it, you dont need to start with a clean hull. Sorry if the site is mis leading - hence the overhaul!

As for the testimonials I'll speak to the Director of ASM and get an answer and post it here.

 

[asm marine sonic uk]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your comments, The reason why I didnt give out any website details was because our UK site is under re-constrution as is our head quarters website in Austraila.

Our transducers are stainless steel for more than the reason of durabililty, they are very powerful and plastic would not be able to cope over a period of time - this is not a copy of any other system, there is a full time professor in Austrailia constantly working on R and D, we have new products for larger yachts coming very soon.

The 90 day guarantee is that within 90 days of fitting ASM the hull will be clean of any fouling! Not that it will work for 90 days. You can fit asm to a fouled hull and it will clean it, you dont need to start with a clean hull. Sorry if the site is mis leading - hence the overhaul!

As for the testimonials I'll speak to the Director of ASM and get an answer and post it here

 

[MapisM]

The 90 day guarantee is that within 90 days of fitting ASM the hull will be clean of any fouling! Not that it will work for 90 days. You can fit asm to a fouled hull and it will clean it, you dont need to start with a clean hull.

Do you mean if it doesn't clean the hull after 90 days you'll refund the price in full upon return of the product?
If so, it's either a scam or a real breakthrough.
I suppose you also guarantee that there won't be all sort of fishes, crabs, etc. floating dead around the marina after a few days...?
...not to mention the boat owners killed while they sleep in their cabins!

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

Oh, dont tell me that SB! I'd prefer a year of blissful ignorance I saw your rudder photo, thanks. Looked reasonably good, though as mentioned her many moboers care only about barnacles on props becuase there are paints that do the hull as well as u/sonic. Did you see my propspeed/M66 pictures? Link in case not

Thanks. Here are my Propspeed pictures. After immersion from February to August 2009.

 

[Hurricane]

Thanks Mike. I got same info from International - the benefits of M77 are mainly freshwater. So M66 will be fine if that's all that's available and I'll be happy to use it this year. It works for me, as per my recent pics

You sure you don't want to go for black?

Is your reason for black just aesthetic?
I actually like navy.

Maybe your reason is that black doesnt reflect the light.
We had an interesting effect last season.
We are currently on an end of a run of (UK style) pontoons and the lower morning sun covers the whole of the starboard side.
The port side is obscured to a degree by the alongside pontoon finger.
During the height of the growth last season the port side had significantly more growth than the starboard side which had the full benefit of the low morning sun.
This leads me to think (in laymans terms of course) that the foulong prefers darker areas.
In fact I met someone earlier last season who recommended hanging plastic bags full of water so that the sun's light would difuse under the boat.
Woffling a bit here but I think that there's a case fo lighter coloured A/F paint - white for example.
Anyway, I chose navy cos I like the colour.

Be interested to hear why you like black.

 

[Marsupial]

But GRP boats are "roughly" plastic

"Our transducers are stainless steel for more than the reason of durabililty, they are very powerful and plastic would not be able to cope over a period of time "

so do they "punch" a hole in the hull then? - over a period of time. - like Ultrasound when used to disintegrate gall stones?

 

[jfm]

Thanks. Here are my Propspeed pictures. After immersion from February to August 2009.

Hmmm. I would say, bearing in mind I boat in barnacles-ville Med, that my propspeed performed a bit better than yours

Tricky stuff this. Hard to get consistency in results

On your prev boat, which you said elsewhere is moored in same place as your new boat, did you have p'speed? If you didn't, how does the barnacle-age compare with/without propspeed as far as you can tell?

Thanks for the info

 

[MapisM]

I chose navy cos I like the colour.

Seconded. Of course, beauty's in the eye etc.
But imho that's the only choice which is always appropriate, on each and every vessel and regardless of the fashion of the moment.

 

[John100156]

So I thought these usafs will scare em off, in a nuclear kind of way. So I plugged the usaf thing in on Woodie's boat, placed the control box in his cockpit and placed the two vibrators on his foredeck, with the wires led thru the ajar sliding roof. Result? Next day 50 seagulls rocked up with an "Oooh, what new toy has Jenny got for us today?" look on their cocky little faces, and actually huddled around my USAF vibrators and shat all over them for about 3 hours. The fukcers.

Reading the above made me and SWMBO LoL.

We have some Euro cousins of that flock of gulls in Sant Carles, they allow us to use the swimming pool from time-to-time! MDL intalled similar deterrents and found a solution, a recoding of sea-gull alarm calls played back frequently over speakers, I am sure it worked, until a few local boaters complained about the noise!

I am undecided regarding usaf, especially if they cannot encase the transducers in plastic but use steel, I wonder what the long-term effects on grp laminates might be? That is if it works at all.... I hope it does!