Antifoul

[ab1974 1]

Talked to BJ (Brian) and Decided to take the punt and run with coppercoat. Few mixed reviews but the guys at MEC have given me enough confidence to give it a go. At worst I reckon I am about breakeven, at best well ahead.

 

Will let you know how it goes over time.

 

Thanks for the chat Matty, hopefully it is successful for me.

[samin 0]

I put a lot of thought into my bottom system, wanted it to last 2 years and not have to scrape it off afterwards...

 

In the end I went for a Hard "basecoat" (red) with a soft/ablative (black) topcoat

 

I would never put a soft on without a hard underneath as once it wears away (which it will quickly if you clean it) you'l be back to primer and get massive growth very quickly.

 

My boats been in the water 8 months or so and theres very little of the soft stuff left, looks funny with patches of red and black but as I said my missus, if the hard red stuff wasnt on there we would be hauling out... not fun.

 

At least now I effectivly have fresh hard antifoul. should get another 18 months out of it. The rest of the black will wash off soon and it will all be red

[Guest]

Just watch the sandblasting guys very carefully. This took a lot of fixing.

[Guest]

In fact don't sandblast.

[wheels 543]

The only situation that you should ever sandblast is a steel Hull you want to take back to bare clean steel to prime and undercoat again. NEVER sandblast anything else. And if you do for some strange reason, you need an experienced operator who should as a result use something like Soda. I don't know if this is done here in NZ, but dry ice blasting has been very effective for blasting osmosis bubbles. I expect the cost would be such that simply grinding them would be the better option, although slower.

[Guest]

The above damage was soda blasting.

[Boatbag 0]

Hi All,

 

Many owners in Australia are taking a different approach..... They have opted for no antifoul in many cases and put the boat into a boatbag. Even if they do antifoul they put the boat straight into a boatbag.

 

Why? Growth does not return. I have not antifouled for 4 years and I race weekly on my etchells (and win - often).

 

We have Farr 40 owners (not serious racers - much) Farr 30, Adams 10, powerboat owners all using bags.

 

I know this sounds like pure advertising - it is not! These are the facts. Check out Middle Harbour Yacht Club if you can and see for yourself.

 

Happy boating.

[Boatbag 0]

I have used Micron 66 before which was really good (lucky i didnt have to pay it was left over from another BIG project) at keeping the growth off and lasted but i couldnt afford to use it again.

then had Trilux on the SR26, this was good and lasted 18months but fouled really quick. it was smooth and didnt stain at the waterline. foul came off easily but grew back really fast, like under a month and she was real dirty.

Then had micron ultra on the GBE, it was OK but in fact pretty average and didnt last long. I also hate the green you get on the waterline.

Tried some seahorse on the marauder but it was only applied on the grid with little preparation so didnt really have much of a chance. It Didnt last long at all, under a year.

 

Im debating what to put on the marauder right now as its out of the water for winter. Up the river at stillwater with a lot of tidal flow.

It needs to be taken right back and started from scratch. I have half a tin or dover white Micron ultra so was just going to get another 4l of that for a total of 6l and spray it all on.

I was so thinking that I might scrape the bottom (and or use some of the nano shield antifoul remover as i have tin of that) then roll 1 or 2 coats of interprotect and wet sand smooth then just before i put the boat in spray 1 coat of interprotect followed by the antifoul after half an hour or so.

 

I want a mid/dark grey color, anyone got experience mixing tins to get the desired colour?

 

I had trilux on drums of time. Seemed pretty soft, more ablative than hard. It really needed redoing after 12 months. By the time I hauled out (about 2 years) there was very little left on the hull.

 

I have Ultra on it now. Way harder and much less growth.

 

From what I understand, if you're using Ultra you should give it plenty of time before putting the boat back in the water - like two days or more - and then avoid scrubbing or water blasting it for several months.

 

Suggest you stop wasting your time re antifouling to find it slimes up - just clean it and get a boatbag. Say goodbye to toxic paint....

[Grinna 2]

How about you buy some advertising on the site.