FP Mahe 36

[IrieCat]

Teri and Lonnie, irie cat (hull#49)

[MKB53]

Martin and Sonia Hull # 42 Reflexion.

I am keen to hear how the CopperCote works out.

Our hulls have been dry except for occasional fresh water spill from overfilling. I think the guage sender unit is not seated properly and a bit of water escapes if you leave it overflowing too long.

[Georg + Sandra]

Originally Posted by Jef & Marin, Netherlands

Mark, what do you mean the hulls stay so dry? Every time after a rough sail (tacking with waves in strong wind) I have to dry the hulls. Wave slamming pushes seawater into the bilge pump tubes.
We purchased four one way valves (Whale brand). Hope this helps.

Yesterday we arrived in our winter harbor here in the Netherlands. Miss Poes stys in the water this winter. We just reached 4000 nm this summer by visiting all countries in the Baltic. Total distance now 7222 nm.

Our boat is hull nr 88, "Miss Poes", delivered begin of june 2008.

We put our boat on the sands to clean the Coppercoat and chack the anodes before winter. The folding propellor zinc anodes (imitation but fitting well) turned out to be gone around 90 % after being in the water exactly 6 months! Beware. I don't know the cause: brackish Baltic water, voltages / current due to shore connection, or inferior quality. Any suggestions?
The sail drive anodes are still good enough from new.

Good sailing,
Jef

Hi Jef and Marin
Please send a mail to our e mail adress.
I can't get one through the adress you gave us in Amsterdam.
Sandra + Georg Cologne

[Wayward Wind]

Originally Posted by Scott730

JC
My trampoline ripped . . .
Scott

Scott,

Was the rip a small tear, or the kind someone can fall through? I ask because when we are out at sea, and conditions are ideal, Kim and I usually lounge on the tramps listening to the sound of water shooshing against the hulls, or just watching the dolphins.

JohnC

[DtM]

Thanks you all for responding. I have also done a bit of an historical search back through this thread to find some owners but I am missing some info.

As you will see I am missing bits of info so if you want to tell me I will fill them in. At the bottom are two owners that I have no information on.

Hull# Log On Name Owner(s) Boat Name

25 jean1146 JC
27 Scott730 Scott Oceanview
28 Larry W Larry Kokomo
29 DtM Daniel +Elaine 2gether
42 MKB53 Martin + Sonia Reflexion
47 Mark Mark Options
49 IrieCat Lonnie + Teri Irie Cat
56 Kipper
60 lstyles Lori + Ken Venti
88 Jef&Marin Jef + Marin Miss Poes
92 seadog3315 John Wayward Wind
93 longislandsail Al + Ro Southern Cross
96 Cotemar Mark + Margaret Catatude
103 RoadRacer Chuck + Michele Normandie
Kev+Jo
Jase Jan + Jase

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

Hi all,
A Swiss couple are making a world tour with their Mahe called Infinity
Their weblog is
Segeltörn mit Mahé 36
In German....
Jef

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

I saw some questions on coppercoat. I will tell our experiences:

Application:
This spring we removed the off-factory antifouling and epoxy primer. This took more than 12 man-days, and a lot of material, so better purchase your boat naked underwater.
We then put on 3 layers of the solvent-free anti-osmosis epoxy as recommended by the suppliers of coppercoat, called ME 100. This is a high-grade epoxy as used on drilling platform etc. Although it has probably very good anti-osmosis properties, I can not recommend this; probably due to it being solvent-free it gives a distinct orange peel effect making it impossible to sand the coppercoat afterwards. This might also reduce boat speed. If I did it again I would take a different anti-osmosis system.
Then we applied 4-5 layers of coppercoat, all in one day. This was a long day with 3 people, one just for mixing and distributing the stuff.
After a week of drying and hardening, we sanded the coppercoat using a rotating sander and velcro-backed scoring pads. These are of a scotch-brite like material: a sanding foam from Metabo, 150 mm diameter. Using these soft pads instead of sanding discs was necessary because of the orange peel.
I did not remove the white protection on the sugar scoops to apply under it, but if I did it again I would. Neither did I remove the rubber around the saildrive.
Without these it already was a monster job.

Experiences:
Of course the light blue antifouling looks much better than the quickly discoloring coppercoat.
The boat was for 1.5 months on saltwater and then for 4 months on brackish water (the Baltic). Then salt again, now on sweet water for the winter. After launching this spring and one month of salt water we dried Miss Poes on sandy tidal water. There were no barnacles, and light slime (green patches) on a few spots. Easily removed in 10 minutes with 10*20 cm pads.
One sail drive (untreated) was completely covered with young barnacles. The other saildrive had one half completely covered with barnacles, the other side with green hairy algae. So the coppercoat obviously does a job.
After returning from the Baltic to the Wadden sea, we dried the ship again on tidal water. Removing the slime off the coppercoat took 1 hour for the two of us. Doing this each half year is recommended.

My conclusion is that for these cold waters here up north coppercoat is a good alternative for self-polishing antifouling. Less work; a high initial investment, a terrible job but no costs (antifouling and lifting) after that; environmentally much better.
I have been looking at the web a lot before deciding for coppercoat. There are very positive and very negative messages. Part of the messages (pro and con) are most probably put there by people who earn their money by selling coppercoat or "normal" antifouling.
Additionally, I have had email contact with a independent coppercoat user cruising the Caribbean.
I have the impression that coppercoat is OK for colder waters, but might be inadequate for Caribbean waters. As I understand all antifoulings are inadequate for the Caribs except for extremely poisonous stuff which is illegal in Europe anyhow.
Seeing the amount of work it makes no sense to put on coppercoat if you keep the boat just a few years.

There are cheaper alternatives to coppercoat: there is another brand and some people mix copper powder and epoxy themselves. I have no idea on effectiveness and did not want to take a risk.

Regards,
Jef

[jean1146]

Seadog you make me wonder now because just like you when conditions are right the two of us will be laying down in the tramp,readind,napping or just relaxing.If for some reason this thing would give up....here we go,it is kind scary not saying that I would hate to be picked up by the Coast guard having nothing to cover myself.....I will make a good inspection,at this point as far as I can tell it looks pretty good.
JC.

[LarryW]

J c

I tend to demonstrate the strength of the tramp for visitors by jumping into it. Someday I guess I will get wet doing this, but it is a fair test.

Larry

[Scott730]

All
The rip is 12 inches long and right at the edge. It was big enough for my wifes foot to go thru. I repaired it and I'm trying to get F-P to cover it, which they say they are "working on it", I'm not holding my breath. I would not jump on the tramp and I'm very careful while using it now. I'm still looking at replacements but it will be a custom job and will take 6 weeks, I'm leaving for the Bahamas in 5 weeks so I guess I'll chance it, but will practice my Man Over Board drill a few times before leaving. All I can say is be careful using it.

Scott

[Scott730]

Daniel
Kev and Jo have their boat up for sale, I met them in Florida and they told me that a business commitment cut their cruising plans short, even still they cruised the Med, crossed the Atlantic, cruised the Caribbean and the South East coast of the U.S. What an adventure!

[Wayward Wind]

Originally Posted by DtM

Thanks you all for responding. I have also done a bit of an historical search back through this thread to find some owners but I am missing some info.


Kev+Jo

Kev & Jo Hull 86 Invincible

[DtM]

Hull#, Log On Name, Owner(s), Boat Name

25 jean1146 JC
27 Scott730 Scott "Oceanview"
28 Larry W Larry "Kokomo"
29 DtM Daniel +Elaine "2gether"
42 MKB53 Martin + Sonia "Reflexion"
47 Mark Mark "Options"
49 IrieCat Lonnie + Teri "Irie Cat"
56 Kipper
60 lstyles Lori + Ken "Venti"
86 Kev&Jo Kev + Jo "Invincible"
88 Jef&Marin Jef + Marin "Miss Poes"
92 seadog3315 John "Wayward Wind"
93 longislandsail Al + Ro "Southern Cross"
96 Cotemar Mark + Margaret "Catatude"
103 RoadRacer Chuck + Michele "Normandie"

Jase Jan + Jase
Bruno and Heidi "Infinity"

[DtM]

Scott,

That sure is some adventure.

I wonder how many miles they sailed?

[lstyles]

I posted here about a month or so ago about how my folding props had both gone bad recently. Well when we looked at them they both looked very worn (and not from corrosion) and my dealer (who has seen a lot of props) says the design looks bad and they are VERY heavy. This is important because now it looks like my transmission on the right side is shot and will have to be replaced. It seems as if the props themselves may be responsible for increased wear on the transmission. The transmission is still under warranty but I have to pay to have the boat hauled. This whole thing is gonna cost me big bucks in the end and it appears that it is a design issue. I have only 800 hours on these engines/props so all of this shouldn't be happening! Has anyone else out there who has the folding props had any problems with them or needed to replace them or had transmission problems?
thanks,
Lori