Was 2024 a bad year for fouling in Suffolk and Essex

[LittleSister]

If (non-racing) folks are having to do mid-season scrubs and yet still having heavy fouling in less than a season, I have to wonder whether anti-fouling is now so ineffective as to not be worth the cost and trouble.

Any evidence or views one way or the other?

 

[Sailing steve]

I'm not sure what the solution is. I've looked and looked and read review after review and tried a different antifoul every spring and moved my boat to a different location and still haven't found a satisfactory answer.

All I do know is that the relentless fouling is seriously compromising my boats performance for at least half the season and rather reluctantly I'm beginning to wonder what the point of owning a boat actually is if the frustration of constant fouling ruins the enjoyment of sailing it.

 

[oldgit]

A cynic might observe, that apart from those curious people who actually anticipate with unalloyed joy the opportunity of being able to organise and pay for the pleasure of hauling a large amount of weed covered plastic, usually at inconvenient times out of the water, that we really are living in the Stone Age regards anti fouling.
Is it beyond the wit of man to not infuse some sort of "death to weed" in gel coat when the boat is built or at the very least some sort
of " float through" up side down carwash device.
Got to go, somebody in white coat banging on the front door.

 

[LittleSister]

A cynic might observe, that apart from those curious people who actually anticipate with unalloyed joy the opportunity of being able to organise and pay for the pleasure of hauling a large amount of weed covered plastic, usually at inconvenient times out of the water, that we really are living in the Stone Age regards anti fouling.
Is it beyond the wit of man to not infuse some sort of "death to weed" in gel coat when the boat is built or at the very least some sort
of " float through" up side down carwash device.
Got to go, somebody in white coat banging on the front door.

It is not at all beyond the wit of man to make anti-foul paint that is 'death to weed', but that causes death to weed and other organisms/creatures in the vicinity. Leisure boats are gathered together in certain places, in practice rarely moving, so that becomes death to the ecology of those places, and in aggregate harms the wider ecology that we and everything else depends on.

It is an unnecessary, as well as presumably difficult to impossible, step to build 'death to weed' into the gelcoat.

There are upside down car wash type devices. (Didn't there used to be one somewhere in the Solent?) I have no idea how effective or desirable to use they are. Add up the high cost of the machine, maintenance, the prime real estate it is located on, the operating staff, insurance, etc. and it is not going to be a cheap service or sure-fire investment.

What we need is an underwater upside-down scrubber version of those robot vacuum cleaners/lawn mowers!

 

[johnalison]

Trained mullet is what I’m working on.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

Quote
Coppercoat is the combination of a specially developed two-pack epoxy resin and 99% pure copper. Each litre of Coppercoat contains 2kg of ultra fine copper powder, the maximum allowed by law. On immersion, sea water attacks the exposed pure copper, causing the formation of cuprous oxide.
Unquote

The days of launching in April, and then a scrub before the summer cruise are gone. I'm wondering how long it will be before the above 2 kg of Coppercoat is reduced. Sorry - being negative.

I'm happy using hard antifoul and happy with the light excercise of regular scrubbing using a Scrubbis. When I do come out I'm pretty clean.

There is definitely less fouling in a marina berth. Whether it's the concentration of boats in a small area and/or less sun rays I don't know.

If man can teach Cormorants to catch and return fish to the fishermen . I'm sure Mr Johnalson can train Mullet to eat nice juicy sea fruit and veg from the bottom of his boat. If he starts the training now , could be all trained up for next spring. Just remembered , they bugger off for the winter.

 

[Puffin10032]

Just remembered , they bugger off for the winter.

So do quite a few yacht owners I believe