Seajet prop antifoul.

[TOM]

Has anyone had any exsperience with Seajet prop antifouling. The price of "Propspeed" is just rediculous so i'm looking for an alternative.

www.byamee.com

[DivingOtter]

Hire a diver, a legitimate diver to clean regularly. All that fancy crap doesnt work.

[Paperbird]

This year we had great success with a can of zinc cold galvanizing spray paint from your local home improvement store. About $10 for the can. One can was plenty for the prop and shaft. Wire brush them clean before applying.

Got the suggestion from a crusty charter fisherman who is also a retired Master Chief Bos'ns Mate.

First time I can remember not having to dive and clean the prop and shaft frequently during the season. Came out at the end of the season with no growth, hard or soft.

BTW - the Marine stores sell the same stuff in a fancier can for 2-3x the price.

YMMV

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by DivingOtter

Hire a diver, a legitimate diver to clean regularly. All that fancy crap doesnt work.

Oh goodie -- another professional diver to back up fstbttms suggestions that if we don't hire a diver we are bad folks who don't maintain our vessels properly.

Give us a break, Otter. Some of that "fancy stuff" does indeed work. I can say that from my personal experience, not from internet wisdom.

With your background (from your profile) you should have some useful and/or interesting contributions here. Lets have some of that stuff instead of the above stuff.

Cheers,

Jim

[DivingOtter]

Jim, I could care less what you think about my suggestions. I dont clean small vessels any longer and its not like im going to dive this guys boat and make a buck. All that stuff is a waste in the long run, yeah it might work for a boat that sits for long periods of time but it doesnt hold for very long.

[DivingOtter]

And my suggestion goes from people in MY area that have used it and say its a waste, or when I used to be under hulls and see the remnants of that stuff on the wheel and shaft that had been applied a few months previous. Trust me I dont deal with recreational vessels anymore because 90 % of the time they complain how expensive haul outs but are too cheap to want to pay for a diver when they have a problem. I REALLY want to haul my compressor and equipment down a 100 yard dock to make one or two hundred bucks? No.. Maybe in your area it works but in my location it doesnt.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by DivingOtter

Jim, I could care less what you think about my suggestions. I dont clean small vessels any longer and its not like im going to dive this guys boat and make a buck. All that stuff is a waste in the long run, yeah it might work for a boat that sits for long periods of time but it doesnt hold for very long.

Well, mate, I'm really glad that you don't have to deal with us whinging yotties any more. We are all cheapskates and hate to part with a dollar...

But, from both personal experience and observation of many other boats around Australia, Prop Speed does work. On our boat (in which we average around 5000 miles per year) Prop Speed kept our Flex-O-Fold three blade prop free of fouling for a year. We slipped for routine maintenance at the end of that year and were unable to source the materials to reapply the coating, and so left it alone. It continued to work for another 6 months, but then began to show bare spots and those spots attracted the usual growth. We just slipped again, again after 12 months total, and found the prop to have around 25% of the coating still visible, but very thin and not working well, so it is fair to say that it had totally failed at that time.

The manufacturer of the product only claims 12 month viability, and that seems to be accurate. Note that during this period we traversed waters both tropical and damn chilly, latitudes ranging from around 17 to 44 degrees South, and thus were exposed to many sorts of fouling organisms.

So, Otter, while you may not care what I think of your "suggestions", I believe that saying that all the "fancy stuff" (in which I would assume that you include Prop Speed) does not work is inaccurate and misleading. There may be situations where it is less effective, and improper application can reduce its lifetime, but for many of us it is the best antifouling agent for propellers that we have yet tried.

Cheers

Jim

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by DivingOtter

Trust me I dont deal with recreational vessels anymore .

Good.