Copper garden sprays...

[aardvarkash10 1,057]

We are moored on poles in the Clevedon river and get a lot of green staining throughout the year.

Except, we noticed today, where water runs down off our bronze locker latches.  There, no growth.

Which led to the thought of spraying the topsides and deck with a copper garden spray to kill and then resist the biological growth.

Has anyone tried this?

[alibaba 80]

Put an  iron nail into a copper solution and the copper deposits on the nail [ badly] replacing some iron which dissolves off the nail. I'm sure that it would be ok on wood, fibreglass etc, but I would be a bit wary about the dissimilar metals problem. Does wet and forget  or similar solve the problem? I know a guy with an immaculate teak deck which is over 20 years old, and he says all he ever puts on it is wet and forget.

[Steve Pope 253]

Wet n forget works well, Wheels explained a year or 3 ago that the active ingredients (I can't remember which ones they are) are safe to use on sail covers  and dodgers etc. Whereas some of the others ones are more aggressive. Maybe wheels will see this post and respond.

[Jon 391]

I spray my decks beginning of each winter with Wet and Forget, not the cheapest by a long way, but I know it won’t do any harm

Sailmakers use it on sails also

[Cheap Transport 72]

8 hours ago, Jon said:

I spray my decks beginning of each winter with Wet and Forget, not the cheapest by a long way, but I know it won’t do any harm

Sailmakers use it on sails also

Jon, does the Wet and Forget make your decks slippery when wet? Like a detergent would? 

[Jon 391]

No, we have a quite flat teak deck and over winter the southern side, in around the mast base, handrails and Genoa tracks were it didn’t dry fast enough after rain it would start to grow green, then dirt would build up.

The first time I did it the results weren’t great as you really need to clean everything before you apply, I’ve found the best results to be to give the decks a light scrub, then spray it on and leave it. Don’t rinse the boat, let it dry in place then it reactivates each time it rains. Definitely not slippery, if I see grime buildup after a while I just hose the decks every month or 6 weeks over winter

If you just want something to kill what’s there use 30 Seconds or the likes such as Sodium Hypochlorine commonly known as Pool Chlor. And then wash off, this is a lot cheaper but doesn’t continue to work, so you will need to do this a few times. But it depends on where your boat lives over winter, Westhaven seems really bad for grime buildup probably from the motorway. The best place to avoid this I’ve found is above 20* S and below 20* N latitude