which antifoul??

[gd7hej]

hi,i have a t28 trapper,at present she has a red antifoul on which previous owner has told me it was a teflon based paint,anyone help on which of the vast range to chose from??she is lying afloat in a locked gate marina,which on heavy rainfalls fill the harbour with fresh water,also the white waterline i have always needs scrubbing she has a scum on it,due to boat floating at different heights due to water changing from fresh to salt..any help please..regards graham

 

[chippie]

It is important to make sure an overcoating of antifouling is compatible with the coat beneath, if you arent sure of your antifoul it is best if you can bludge a small test amount from someone who is antifouling and try it to ensure compatability to avoid a costly mistake.
If you cant be sure, it would be best to strip all the old stuff off and start from scratch.
If you want to change brands/type the best thing to do is ask locals who moor near you what they use and are they happy with it as most antifouls are locale specific as to how well they perform.
In my opinion none perform as well as I would like.

 

[Guest]

Doesn't PBO still have the Paint Q&A ??????

Anyway a question to Blakes or International Help Desks should give the prime reply !!

As to 'scum-line' ----- I always a/f a little higher than normal w/line .... about 2 inches. Its amazing also when you see the freeboard differences and that 2 inches often disappears !! Or another way is to add a 'coach-line' .... (boot-topping line) 2-3 inches wide all along the top of the a/foul normal line .... in a nice contrasting colour ... that doesn't show the scum so well ....eg blue line topping a red a/f .....

 

[vyv_cox]

Perhaps the most effective antifouling of all is fresh water. Marine growth is killed and falls off after about three days. A thin black coating develops in fresh water but my experience, after six years berthed in fresh, is that there is no effective means of preventing this. However, it is very easily removed with a scrubbing brush.

If your boat is regularly subjected to fresh water then I suggest you apply an antifouling that will stand up to scrubbing - i.e. hard scrubbable. Eroding antifoulings are very quickly removed by scrubbing but my scrubbable lasts at least two seasons.

You can only remove your waterline marking by scrubbing. Special boot-topping antifouls are available, at high cost, but I only use scrubbable and this seems to survive perfectly well. As Nigel suggests, antifoul a couple of inches above the normal waterline to avoid having to scrub the GRP.

 

[oldharry]

Antifouling effectiveness varies from place to place. Here in Chi harbour, Blakes products seem to keep pretty well everything at bay. I used their Cruiser on my boat, and she is pretty well as clean now as when she was launched. International Boottopping on the other hand actually seems to attract 'grass'

However other boats in the same mooring area come out some quite heavily fouled with weed, others with barnacles, others with both! Depending on what product the owners used.

Even the Paint makers themselves admit that their specific products are better in some places than others.

The best way to find out is to hang around at crane out time, and see which boats come out cleanest, then ask owners what they used. Make sure that whatever you put on is compatible with the old coating - I once had nearly all my expensive AF fall off within a couple of months after mistakenly identifying the previous brand!