Prop Antifouling Paint

[dsamuels]

Which products are the best for antifouling on props. Petit Zinc buster, prop speed, or something else?

[lcurcur]

I use zinc cold galvanizing spray from home depot, cheaper at 10$ per can and appears to be the same. Clean and prep prop, 5 coats spray on with fairly short recoat time, weather dependent. Worked excellent for me in New England. Lasted for 5 months with zero barnacles and very minor slime. Helps to protect prop from corrosion too better than zinc collar alone.

[bewitched]

I've had good results with SeaJet Pellerclean.

Lasted me about a year.

[fstbttms]

Both the Pettit and Prop Speed products work well (although they are completely different technologies.) But I would recommend the Pettit spray based on cost. Prop Speed is good, but not so much better that the difference in price is worth it, IMHO.

[Paperbird]

The guy in the yard next to me is a retired Master Chief Machinist Mate. Last year he did a somewhat controlled study by painting some bits of his charter fishing boat with Zinc paint (the cold galvanizing kind from Lowes - not the expensive marine version), some with other options. Got remarkable results from the zinc painted parts - virtually no growth.

I realize anecdote is not the singular of data, but I learned a long time ago to trust the Master Chiefs! Will have a 2nd anecdotal story by the end of the season...

[onestepcsy37]

sex wax. a local diver put me on to this. my boat was in the water but not being used much and every month i had to dive on the prop and scrape off mounds of barnacles. a local diver recommended sex wax which i applied while the boat was in the water. from that time until we went cruising four months later i never had a single barnacle. i don't know if running the prop washes off the sex wax as once we got underway we used the engine enough to keep the prop spinning.

what is sex wax? just ask any surfer. or google it and buy a cake for about one dollar. i used the hard variety. and it can be applied while the
boat is in the water - not possible with a spray can....

[mikereed100]

Great tip about the Sex Wax. I'll have to give it a try as I already have some on the boat. Not to undercut my homeys at Sex Wax, but I'd bet just about any kind of wax would do, surf wax being easier to apply in the water. Probably works on the same principle as lanolin but should wear quite a bit better.

[sailorboy1]

Some of you must be real cheap or just have too much time on your hands. I got the Pellit barnacle buster paint for $18.36 for a can. How much are you saving screwing around with some zinc paint from Home depot or somewhere? Especially considering the time to clean the shaft/prop and apply?

Unless you don't really care whether it works and are looking to spend a few dollars on a Home Depot paint to see if it works as an experiment.

[callmecrazy]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Some of you must be real cheap or just have too much time on your hands. I got the Pellit barnacle buster paint for $18.36 for a can. How much are you saving screwing around with some zinc paint from Home depot or somewhere? Especially considering the time to clean the shaft/prop and apply?

Unless you don't really care whether it works and are looking to spend a few dollars on a Home Depot paint to see if it works as an experiment.

Some of us are real cheap. But beyond that, some of us don't appreciate being overcharged by 'marine' companies when virtually the same product is 40-80% cheaper without the label.
If the home depot stuff works, I think I'll try it...

PS: It's $6 at home depot.

[Ozbullwinkle]

Just as an aside to this discussion here is a process I have used on shaft drive boats during antifouling. I have firstly removed all previous layers of antifoul taking it back to a nice shiny shaft.

Once the shaft is clean I close spiral wrap the shaft with the blue masking tape that is used during antifouling. Then apply antifoul paint over the tape & I usually put on 3 coats. Then the next time you haul your boat just use a blade to cut through the tape down the length of the shaft & peel it off and you have a clean shaft ready to repeat the process.

[ronbo1]

I seem to be the only one disappointed with Pettit Zinc spray.
Have used it for several years in the Chesapeake and then LI Sound with poor results. I tried HawkSpeed one year before they took it off the market for being ineffective. I may go back to bottom paint and dive on it regularly.

Ronbo

[AfterHoursNLCT]

Originally Posted by ronbo1

I seem to be the only one disappointed with Pettit Zinc spray.
Have used it for several years in the Chesapeake and then LI Sound with poor results. I tried HawkSpeed one year before they took it off the market for being ineffective. I may go back to bottom paint and dive on it regularly.
Ronbo

I used Pettit for one year with great results.
The next year, we pushed it at the marina store, and come haul-out time, I had to apologize to people for recommending it.
Last year, I used the cold galvinizing paint from Lowes with satisfying results. Will use the Lowe's paint again this year...LL

[HopCar]

I haven't tried the zinc based paint but I'm very happy with Prop Speed. My boat spends a lot of time in shallow water and I think that the soft zinc loaded paints would abrade off very quickly.

[ronbo1]

Originally Posted by HopCar

I haven't tried the zinc based paint but I'm very happy with Prop Speed. My boat spends a lot of time in shallow water and I think that the soft zinc loaded paints would abrade off very quickly.

I've noticed on haulout most of the zinc paint remains on the bronze prop...after scraping off the barnacles, indicating it seems to bond well.

I'd like to try PropSpeed but it seems to need at least 50 degrees temperature for best application. Early launching makes that a problem here.

Ronbo

[FSMike]

I've had good luck with the Pettit in the southeast U.S. and the Bahamas, though nothing's perfect.