Is Coppercoat anti foul worth it?

[Rustic Charm]

I did have one problem overnight. I completely forgot that an extra high tide was due last night, so after packing up and going home around 5 ish, the tide came in and so the keel was sitting in about 100mm of water. It seems sound, but not meant to get any water on it for 48 hours. Doh moment.

Looking at the weed and wood around the marina id say the tide went as high as the shop nearby. Today i did aome work inside and the tide had shorted out the slip power, so i needed two extention cords to reach the power on the wall.

[Wotname]

^^ i wouldn't worry too much. Clearly wasn't immersed for vey long and presumably the epoxy would have been fairly well cured by then.

Besides, the very bottom of the keel fouls the least anyway!

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Hauling out merely to check the anodes? That's crazy talk, I tell you!

Ah, but I have twin keels and a free yacht club concrete drying pad (slipway) so whilst it involves time, ie a full high tide to high tide it doesn't cost me anything. Unfortunately we have to lift once a year to paint, tried it on the slip but the hull doesn't dry in time to apply the paint and have it dry completely before the tide comes in. During the summer I can check the anodes with my feet which will just reach the prop and shaft with my nose above the water level, or get the on board diving kit out.

Trilux 33 is rubbish here and weed will grow in weeks. Internationals Cruiser Uno is okay and comes in 3L tins rather than the normal 2.5L or even 2L. Applied late Spring and a mid season gentle wash will suffice, but it comes off if you use a soft brush. It also needs double the quantity recommended, so 6L for a 31ft yacht.

Also worth pointing out we don't have professional divers to scrub hulls in the UK. To put a professional diver in the water in the UK requires, a diver, a standby diver, a line handler and a supervisor, so that is 4 people if you play by the rules. A single diver on his own is a complete no no and against the Diving at Work Regulations brought in after series of horrific accidents in the North Sea. Also marinas are risk adverse so don't allow diving.

Pete

[David B]

Originally Posted by Salty Mike

How bout you folks in Fla and the Caribbean how often do you clean your bottoms?


On your boats.

Similar waters on the North African side of the Med - warm, nutrient rich (no pump-out facilities), and the only real water movement is wind current. At the end of a full year of going nowhere, we had a light brown furring of 3mm or so around the water line (not much at all lower down). That was in sharp contrast to the boats around us (lots of hard growth, and significant weed in most cases). The furring just fell off when you wiped your hand over it.

Our Coppercoat has been on for a full five years now, and looking at the surface so far, we expect significantly more than 10 years from it. We may have to put another couple of coats on around the waterline at about the 10 year mark, but that's it.

As a note, you don't sand it or burnish it other than the first time. You want those copper oxides on the surface - you don't want bright copper there to have to start the oxidation process all over again.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Pix to follow as construction progresses.

One unused and unwanted AMF/Alcort Sailfish gone on to a higher calling. In this case, being cut up for test panels.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

One unused and unwanted AMF/Alcort Sailfish gone on to a higher calling. In this case, being cut up for test panels.

Im not sure Im getting this

So, am i right in thinking now, you will treat them with Coppercoat and put them in the water?

I woukd have thought they would have already been treated

[DumnMad]

Originally Posted by Muckle Flugga

In any case the other is a large copper lattice I had made in Scotland around 7 years ago, by a lightning protection company. The fat cable you see coming off it ends in a very large alligator clip which is clipped to the cap shroud if I am in a stormy anchorage or similar, with the lattice hung off in the water beside the boat. The idea is that it will encourage the strike to avoid the main hull and other equipment.

"Thread drift" I like the concept M-F but since a small diameter stainless wire is a poor conductor compared to the aluminium mast I was thinking of connecting the in-water grounding plate to the mast near deck level.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

One unused and unwanted AMF/Alcort Sailfish gone on to a higher calling. In this case, being cut up for test panels.

Any results back from the test yet?

[lateral]

Emailed Fstbttms on this direct a few days ago.--kinda curious too.

M2cw:
I have only experience with ablative in the past, but this time wanted to give coppercoat a trial and are pleased with the result.

Left for eight months in the Waitemata.

Estimate of 10% of the fouling of my rib (control) along side.
I had to get the bottom half oyster shells off the rib with pickling paste. It was a freaking nightmare.Esp. on the rubber tube. Deflating didn't help much.
.
Conversely, on the CC the slime, misc algae and sick barnacles came off with a wipe.

As as another control, I put Awlcraft hard on the rudder.
Coppercoat beat it hands down.
My coppercoat was DIY, 325 mesh 99.4% purity 2Kg/litre of west 105.
Three coats, wet on tacky. Stirred profusely & continuously. (Not that aquaepoxy crapola.)
I'm happy. Time will tell....

btw, noo biocide.

This dude: http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-LBS-COPPE...MAAMXQh8NTdRiZ

[twohapence]

I applied Coppercoat to my Iroquois which was kept on a 1/2 tide mooring in Chichester Harbour, England. We always got serious fouling on the lower part of the hulls. I'm assuming this was where they sank into the mud rendering the coppercoating ineffective. The upper parts grew a little slime but this just washed off.

[lateral]

Originally Posted by David B

Similar waters on the North African side of the Med - warm, nutrient rich (no pump-out facilities), and the only real water movement is wind current. At the end of a full year of going nowhere, we had a light brown furring of 3mm or so around the water line (not much at all lower down). That was in sharp contrast to the boats around us (lots of hard growth, and significant weed in most cases). The furring just fell off when you wiped your hand over it.

Our Coppercoat has been on for a full five years now, and looking at the surface so far, we expect significantly more than 10 years from it. We may have to put another couple of coats on around the waterline at about the 10 year mark, but that's it.

As a note, you don't sand it or burnish it other than the first time. You want those copper oxides on the surface - you don't want bright copper there to have to start the oxidation process all over again.

Sounds plausible to me. Thanks for that tidbit.

[David B]

We are just back from the Med (very unfortunately !), and our fifth season with Coppercoat. Hauled out a few weeks ago. Very light coating of slime pretty well all over, that just blew off with the pressure wash. Areas around the holding tank outlets had patches of a fine, black growth that was a little harder, but just fell off with a flexible steel spatula (like you would use to remove paint after paint stripper has been applied).

Up inside the bow thruster tunnel, there were a very few hard white tube worm things (very fine, like cotton threads stuck down on the surface - we have probably all seen them) that looked like they had tried colonising there, and then gave up, so I did not bother touching that area.

I was particularly interested to see if there was anything up inside the through-hulls. Nothing in any of them, so it seems that if nothing is growing on the hull, then nothing migrates up into the through-hulls.

As a note, we have never sanded or burnished the hull - no need, the resin looks after that side of it (unlike when you just mix copper powder into regular epoxy resin).

We are seeing a bit of erosion around the waterline where there is more oxygen and wave action. Looks like we may need another couple of coats there around the 12 year mark, but the rest of the hull looks like it will be good for at least another 10 years.

One disappointment - where the two halves of the hull come together, there is a shallow groove down the centreline as the hull flattens out. It looks like when the hull was sanded down by the yard to prep the hull for Coppercoat, that groove was not sanded, so there are a couple of places where the Coppercoat has given up trying to hang onto the full gloss (and probably mould-waxed) gelcoat, and I will have to give those areas a sand and touch up. Same old story I guess about doing it yourself, or at least being there to make sure the job is done properly.

Other than that, we are very pleased, and I suppose you have to make concessions for someone who spends their working life sanding boat hulls. Not a job I would want to be doing too much of.

[Kenomac]

David,

How often did you need to dust off the bottom when the boat was sitting still in a Med marina or outside in an anchorage with lots of organic material? I've been using the cheap anti foul for the past two years which worked fine in the clear waters off Sardinia, but over here in the calm but no so clear waters of Montenegro and Italy, the marine growth explodes in just a couple of weeks. Barnacles are particularly bad.

Our boat will be in the Med for the next 6-8 years, is Coppercoat worth it? Our boat gets hauled out 6-7 months each year.

Ken

[lateral]

As a note, we have never sanded or burnished the hull - no need, the resin looks after that side of it (unlike when you just mix copper powder into regular epoxy resin).

Straight from the brochure?

I seriously considered using waterbased epoxies and had a choice of several with different attributes. I choice 100% solids, neat epoxy, as I preferred having an extra barrier coat (or three) as well.
Besides I have a couple of other products to try if my antifoul/barriercoat starts to become ineffective. Having two marine scientist (Phd's) & four divers in the family sure helps. Big incentive to be enviro friendly as possible with my applications!
Interestingly, a patent has just been applied for from Harvard researchers on a new non-toxic antifoul according to by daughter.

[twohapence]

Here's a couple of photos of my boat showing the growth where the hulls rested in the mud. The blue hull is another boat kept in the same place but they used traditional antifouling..... Neither boat has been scrubbed.