White antifouling

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Grumpybear

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Dear All

For the last ten years we have been using Blake's, now Hempel, hard white antifouling on the grounds that it has the best resistance to colour change over time at the waterline (vanity, I know, but the boat does look lovely with blue top sides and a white bottom). However the price is eye watering.

Does the panel have any experience of other white antifoulings in this respect? Are their other products which will stay white for a year?

All experience gratefully received.
 
Never used white, on the grounds that the manufacturers struggle to get enough copper into it without making it pink. It therefore is (or at least used to be) less effective than other colours. Vanity indeed! :)

Pete
 
prv said:
Never used white, on the grounds that the manufacturers struggle to get enough copper into it without making it pink. It therefore is (or at least used to be) less effective than other colours. Vanity indeed! :)

Pete
Click to expand...

I did use white and that is exactly what I found.

So I walked up to the Hempels stand at the Boat Show, mentioned the forthcoming drydocking of six big containerships without saying we had already signed up with International, enjoyed their champagne and tabnabs and eventually asked which colour has the most poison in it.

Answer: red.
 
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Im using cruiser uno at the moment.Got it at a reasonable price but it is the eroding type so you have to use the boat or it doesnt errrr erode.Getting green slime but it seems to fall off easily enough.
 
I always use white Cruiser Uno or whichever the trendy International name is each Spring; it's a self eroding paint which is handy for ( largely ) avoiding build-up, all the club boats come out of the water over a weekend so we all observe and ask ' what antifoul ? ' - the cruiser or equivalent seems as good as any while the really cheap stuff is horrific to look at !
 
Minn said:
eventually asked which colour has the most poison in it.

Answer: red.
Click to expand...

Well, it stands to reason since that's the natural colour of copper-based compounds :)

You'll know better than I do, but I don't remember seeing the underneaths of ships (when high out the water in ballast) being anything other than copper-red.

Pete
 
Since we changed from white, used for many years, to blue we seem to have less fouling. But our sailing pattern for the past four years has been very erratic and variable so it is difficult to be certain. This year has been more like earlier ones, using Micron dark blue there is noticeably less fouling than a few years ago.
 
I've switched to steel white from discountantifoul.com
Its goes on slightly pink and then goes a very light grey after immersion.
I used their red a couple of years ago with good results. Its semi hard and dead easy to apply thickly by brush, being gel like.
Good price and just as well as I needed 10L to give 2 thick coats + three around the waterline and leading/trailing edges.
Fast delivery too.
Ian
 
vyv_cox said:
Since we changed from white, used for many years, to blue we seem to have less fouling. But our sailing pattern for the past four years has been very erratic and variable so it is difficult to be certain. This year has been more like earlier ones, using Micron dark blue there is noticeably less fouling than a few years ago.
Click to expand...

Same here... the word to describe the performance of the white antifouling rhymes quite well.. I
 
I thoroughly recommend Seajet Emporer white antifoul. We've used it for the past six years and can confirm good performance and a highly stable white colour. Yes and we do it for vanity too! It looks nice!
 
I tried an experiment this year.
There was perhaps 1mm of years of antifouling buildup, having never been taken back to gelcoat.
So I pressure washed and did not add another layer, just launched like that.

Its been slimy in the marina, but a few miles sailing and it comes clean. It was always self eroding quality on there, so it seems it still self erodes after several years.
At this rate the 40 year old boat might have about 10 years worth of not re-coating antifouling?
 
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