Ultrasonic Antifouling

longjohnsilver said:
I have a mate who has fitted this system to his Nordhavn in the States fitted particularly to stop fouling on his keel coolers. Whilst he hasn't had the boat out since fitting he does have a diver check the hull each month who so far reports no improvement at all.
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The system does NOT remove existing crustations so in order to prove if the system works the hull has to be clean.

The installation on my boat will take place in January next and the boat will be taken out of the water and the hull cleaned in late March.
 
Do not buy the Ultra Sonic Antifoul!!!! It dose not work and is a waste of money.
I have a new Sunseeker in Spain, and its fitted with the Ultra 20 system. I had it inspected in England when it was fitted ,by the Ultra Sonic people who said the instalation was acceptable and the trasducers were in the right place. I also had the props, shafts, and underwater gear treated with propslip, which is a very expensive antifouling system, and again a waste of time and money. After just six weeks of berthing in our marina our props, shafts, rudders.and all our underwater gear, bow thruster etc. were covered with barnicals and small crustasians, and had to get the boat lifted and cleaned off so we could use the boat!!. I will be asking for my money back
 
Polished my SS props late Sept. and when I arrived back in Sant Carles last week, both duo-props looked like balls! Fouling in SCM is very heavy even in winter. Same as last year.

Warlock and Jenny Wren all looking well above the waterline, but goodness know's whats going on below. Soulmate reports some success bagging their props, they have been out to play a couple of times this weekend and legs did not require pressure washing.

Not sure if ultrasound is the solution, good to get the results published though.

I reckon a low power UV light in a bag! Wonder if we could try this coupled to a PV array and battery...... Mess-up their DNA...... Or better still. lamp etc above to fibre optics below. May knock something up to give it a try!
 
Just interested to know how much new rams are.......and what damaged is caused..........because rods can be machined and seals replaced quite cheaply and with a quick turnaround by a hydraulic specialist......very rare for a ram to be totally u/s.
 
gooner63 said:
Just interested to know how much new rams are.......and what damaged is caused..........because rods can be machined and seals replaced quite cheaply and with a quick turnaround by a hydraulic specialist......very rare for a ram to be totally u/s.
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Crustation stick to the rods and then damage the seals.

In order to remove the rams the boat has to come out of the water. This is very costly as the boat is 19.6metres long and weighs in excess of 31 tonnes.

Whilst Sunseeker could replace seals getting the rods machined and obtaining over sized replacement seals here in Mallorca would be nearly impossible.

The quote to replace the rams was all inclusive and I will ask for the cost of the rams on their own and will let you know.

I am a firm believer that prevention is better than cure.

Hurricane, I saw the photos of the weed on your lovely boat when you took it out of the water recently and I can assure you that the bottom of my boat looks new and unused in comparison.

I agree that Ultrasonic Antifouling would be of no help in solving your problem.
Hope to see you around the Med one day.
 
Your issue with the rams is the same for most of us in a smaller way.
Most of us have trim tabs which would suffer the same way.
To minimise it, I ensure that they are fully up when the boat is left.
In fact, I think they might pull themselves up anyway.
This keeps the shafts inside the ram and should minimise any growth.


Oh yes, believe me, our problem isnt weed - its the same as you - crustacians.

Here's a pic of just before our cheap scrub in October.
Note that this season there has been growth on the antifoul as well but I believe that this is mainly dure to usage.
She's been a long way this year and the hard antifoul has erroded in places.

P1070355_Small.jpg


In Sant Carles, we get really cheap lift and scrub deals - lift, scrub and relaunch for 4.5 eruos/m.
An hour later the boat was cleaner that she would have been using any other technique.

I'm still planning a coating for the props etc next season though - just not sure what at the moment.

Anyway, as you say, it would be great to meet up sometime.
Having just had a great late season cruise round Mallorca (report posted on these forums) we wil definately be over to the islands at the first opportunity.

Mike
 
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what you need is - hierarchical wrinkled topography

I was ferreting around to verify the effect of UV on marine DNA, and came across this


http://www.surfacefinishing.com/art...ting-Resists-Barnacles-May-0001?VNETCOOKIE=NO


Ozone sounds like a promising biocide, but has contra-indications. Perhaps if could squirt it in bursts at the stern gear and props ? I'll ask some biologists I know. There are ozone systems used to prevent bacterial, algal, and biofilm buildup in swimming pools, and fouling must start somewhere....
 
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Rhino said:
Do not buy the Ultra Sonic Antifoul!!!! It dose not work and is a waste of money.
I have a new Sunseeker in Spain, and its fitted with the Ultra 20 system. I had it inspected in England when it was fitted ,by the Ultra Sonic people who said the instalation was acceptable and the trasducers were in the right place. I also had the props, shafts, and underwater gear treated with propslip, which is a very expensive antifouling system, and again a waste of time and money. After just six weeks of berthing in our marina our props, shafts, rudders.and all our underwater gear, bow thruster etc. were covered with barnicals and small crustasians, and had to get the boat lifted and cleaned off so we could use the boat!!. I will be asking for my money back
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Sadly that confirms what most of us thought. Shame as I'm really hoping that somebody finds something that works some day. It can't be beyond the wit of man to invent something that keeps bloody barnacles off sterngear for 12 months. Btw, that's 2 Sunseekers with the system fitted or being fitted. Did Sunseeker recommend the system to you? If so, I'd be asking them some questions too
 
Deleted User said:
Sadly that confirms what most of us thought. Shame as I'm really hoping that somebody finds something that works some day. It can't be beyond the wit of man to invent something that keeps bloody barnacles off sterngear for 12 months. Btw, that's 2 Sunseekers with the system fitted or being fitted. Did Sunseeker recommend the system to you? If so, I'd be asking them some questions too
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No, Sunseeker not involved whatsoever, but I heard that the system was fitted by a Sunseeker Agent at the request of the owner and not by the Ultrasonic people.

I hope this will be a scenario rather like the Copper------ Antifouling where there is no definitive answer as some say it works and some say not.

I've always been an optomist
 
Rhino said:
Do not buy the Ultra Sonic Antifoul!!!! It dose not work and is a waste of money.
I have a new Sunseeker in Spain, and its fitted with the Ultra 20 system. I had it inspected in England when it was fitted ,by the Ultra Sonic people who said the instalation was acceptable and the trasducers were in the right place. I also had the props, shafts, and underwater gear treated with propslip, which is a very expensive antifouling system, and again a waste of time and money. After just six weeks of berthing in our marina our props, shafts, rudders.and all our underwater gear, bow thruster etc. were covered with barnicals and small crustasians, and had to get the boat lifted and cleaned off so we could use the boat!!. I will be asking for my money back
Click to expand...

Yikes. I've been following this thread with interest becuase I've been meaning to fit u/s antifoul as soon as I get time, and was planning to do it around about February 2010 which is my next lift out. I was going to fit the Ultra20 system, with both vibrators over the props. Having seen what you say Rhino, it's a complete waste of time. What a shame. Thanks for the info though
 
Biocide

Sarabande
If I have understood the article correctly the O3 (Ozone) is used to wrinkle the fabric, not to kill anything. It appears to be the wrinkling that the little critters dont like, which makes sense as it would make them vulnerable to predation as they couldnt 'seal' themselves to such a surface.
Th downside would appear to be that the wrinkles may simply cause the same loss of hull efficiency as the crustaceans; although I dont know just what size of wrinkle is being created.
Nature has a way of getting around these things eventually.
By the way, I doubt if the UV light would have much effect on the DNA of shellfish. You may be as likely to create a super-crustacean (not really but it would make a great marine horror story!!) But if someone knows better....
 
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