Water based antifouling

[wizard]

Can anybody recommend a water based antifoul for protecting depth and speed transducers?

 

[johnalison]

I use International Optima for the whole hull. I find it's worth the extra cost to avoid a haul-out during the season. It's two-pot and water-based. It has to cure for an hour before immersion.

 

[tedbarnes]

I too recommend Optima for the whole hull - for a small boat it is worth the extra if only for the ease of removal of any splashes etc and you just wash the brush/roller in water, so that saves a few bob. However AFAIK it is not available in less than 2 litre packs, so may not be practical for small areas unless you can cadge a bit.

Blakes used to do a one pot version, but a couple of years ago it was only available in 5 litre cans - not sure of present situation. Presumably it is popular for indoor application to avoid fumes.

 

[pvb]

It's perhaps not necessary to use a water-based antifouling. Indeed, my depth transducer just gets a thin coat of Micron, which I use on the hull. Transducer manufacturers normally specify water-based antifouling and point out that ketone-based paints may damage the plastic of the transducer. Although ketone was used as a solvent in antifouling at one time, I don't think many current antifoulings now contain ketone.

 

[jerryat]

Yep, I'm with you on this one pvb. I've used Micron for many years on the depth transducer and the log impeller using two thin coats each year without any problems at all.

Each year though, any remaining AF is carefully removed before the two new coats are applied to aviod a build-up.

I do have a friend though who bought the smallest tin of water-based AF he could find for his transducer etc. He reckons he'll be around 147 years old before it's all used!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[wooslehunter]

Last winter I fitted some new instruments & didn't ani-foul the log transducer. By mid season, the calibration was way off. At the end of the season, I had a huge crop of barnacles around the log wheel skin fitting. Last season was so crap I didn't care though.

Luckily I can take the ground so this season, I'll be scraping the fitting clean 3 or 4 times.