XM Anti-fouling - not quite what it says on the tin...

[Dougie_the_Mate]

At the beginning of May I anti-fouled our modest Centaur with XM CX2000 anti fouling - two coats as advised in the instructions.

One of our reasons for choosing this product was that it came in Navy Blue, and very fetching it was when applied. I was somewhat dumfoonert when three weeks later, after launching, it was anything but Navy, but was, if it was any colour, Air Force Blue. It does not look awful but it is certainly not what I had in mind while lying prone underneath trying not to coat my specs in the process.

I sent a not ill humoured e-mail to XM asking for their views over a week ago. This was met by a nil response.

I can accept that it may do the job for which it was designed and keep wee beasties from her bottom, but it looked so good before the launch that I can only express some disappointment at the outcome - both from the product and from XM in terms of after sales service.

 

[DogWatch]

huh!

 

[BrendanS]

I kept looking at the post expecting that April 1st would appear somewhere!

 

[simonfraser]

indeed, just not acceptable. we should have color charts with infinate shades and little match pots.

perhaps we should have that for mast wax too.
personally i find a good stiff rub down does the job, regardless of the product.

 

[capt_courageous]

Does it really matter once it is in the water or do you keep lifting it out to have a look ? Seriously tho' I tried using only one coat with a bit extra on the leading edges of the keels etc. It works and saves money.

 

[oldharry]

Does it really matter once it is in the water or do you keep lifting it out to have a look ? Seriously tho' I tried using only one coat with a bit extra on the leading edges of the keels etc. It works and saves money.

Being a bilge keeler, it probably spends at least half of every tide aground. I never yet saw a soft a/f that didnt change colour after immersion. Blakes Tiger goes a completely different shade of red after the first week, and ends a slightly revolting deep pink, while the keels get stained black by the mud she sits in. Going to black the whole lot next year - wonder what colour that will go? Grey?

 

[Dougie_the_Mate]

Actually she is on a swinging mooring in the Gareloch - so grounding twice a day is not an issue. In the past I have always used either Cruiser Uno or Micron Extra and while they have never satisfactorily kept her bottom clean - the Gareloch at Rosneath is pretty manky at times - the colour was never an issue - they were always light blue.

My point - trivial though it may seem to certain Old Salts - was that this change in the colour, which is quite dramatic, happened within three weeks of the boat going into the water.

Perhaps the boat's appearance is not of great import to some, but we like to keep her looking trim, and that she did before launching. As I said, the proof of the pudding will not be known until she comes out in October, but if the stuff works then the colour may not matter.

 

[stevebirch2002]

Those fish must be really upset seeing the "wrong" colour!

Go sailing, enjoy

Steve B

 

[bob26]

Seems reasonable to me

The OP is not getting much support here but it seems reasonable enough to expect that the advertised colour for a paint should be somewhere near the colour you get when you apply it and use it as intended. Unless of course there is a prominent warning to the effect that the colour you get is nowhere near the colour indicated?

I don't recall any warning about the colour going off on my Cruiser Uno which is a ghastly pink now and nothing like the red indicated. When you can easily pay £50 a tin or more its not unreasonable to get what you thought you paid for is it?

 

[xtiffer]

Time gap between antifouling application and launch?
Cheers,
Chris

 

[bob26]

Time gap between antifouling application and launch?
Cheers,
Chris

My experience is it doesn't make any difference. I've applied the paint at various times from a month before launch to the previous day.

 

[oldharry]

Time gap between antifouling application and launch?
Cheers,
Chris

Half a tide?

 

[Spyro]

I had the exact same experience with Seago a few years ago, lovely dark blue when it went on then something like this colour when in the water

 

[john_morris_uk]

I am trying very hard to find something to worry about in all this. Who cares what colour the boat is underwater?

One of the only reasons I choose blue is that I am told its much easier to get a higher copper content in blue antifouling. Apart from that I don't give a fig what the colour is - but we are all different and all have different priorities I suppose.

 

[janda]

I also saw this colour straight from the tin (CX2000 )but the colour was not the problem. I noticed some green around the waterline and dried out on an Exe sandbank to scrub. I was amazed to find the lower part of the hull was completely covered in barnacles only 5 weeks after launch! After drying out and reapplying the waterline has 'grass' already. I am very dubious about using XM again though I have used it for many years but I have never seen this kind of growth before August.

 

[DogWatch]

I also saw this colour straight from the tin (CX2000 )but the colour was not the problem. I noticed some green around the waterline and dried out on an Exe sandbank to scrub. I was amazed to find the lower part of the hull was completely covered in barnacles only 5 weeks after launch! After drying out and reapplying the waterline has 'grass' already. I am very dubious about using XM again though I have used it for many years but I have never seen this kind of growth before August.

Sadly I noted a green line at the water mark a few weeks after application too, this was last weekend. I hope we get a season from it, but reading your remark is not filling me with confidence.

 

[bob26]

I am trying very hard to find something to worry about in all this. Who cares what colour the boat is underwater?

The OP does. And if colour was so unimportant the stuff would be advertised more accurately according to its colour in use rather than the colour on initial application.... but that would make it harder to convince people to pay the extortionate prices charged for it.

 

[VicS]

if colour was so unimportant the stuff would be advertised more accurately according to its colour in use rather than the colour on initial application

As I think you will find International do.

 

[BrendanS]

hugely unrealistic to expect antifoul to stay the same colour as applied over its lifetime, or even a couple of weeks though.....a hard antifoul may keep its colour for a short while, but any eroding antifoul must be expected to change

 

[charles_reed]

I have yet to come across an antifouling which doesn't change colour after immersion - red is the worst.

I think you're being totally unreasonable and unfair to XM Yachting.