Hard or Soft Bottom Paint

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

You have lost me I have at no stage suggested an hour is sufficient. I'm suggesting quite the contrary that anyone who seems to think that an hour or less is adequate, I'd stay clear off.

My point exactly. You are saying that if you take less than an hour to clean any boat, you aren't doing a proper job. True, if the boat is say, 45'-50' or more. An experienced hull cleaner will take about a minute per foot to clean a boat. A 30' sailboat will therefore take about half an hour to clean (barring heavy fouling etc.) Just because you can't do it that fast doesn't mean he's not doing a good job.

[GILow]

I hear the current record for the number of Swanson 42s cleaned is 1 per year. But I'm sure someone will beat that. :^)


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[David B]

Originally Posted by Clipper4730

Greetings denizens of cruisers forum, I seek knowledge from the oracle of wisdom in all manner of boaty things and such.

So it is that time, can't put it off much longer the bottom needs a painting. Just wanted see what everyone here thinks about the multitude of bottom paints out there. After reading the latest practical sailor article on the subject I'm leaning towards the West Marine PCA gold ablative. Seems fairly economical, any thoughts? Not totally decided on hard or soft and thought I'd come here for a bit of direction. The boat will be in South Carolina for the rest of the summer and winter then up in the Boston area for next summer, then the long slog to Panama and on up to the West Coast

Ine other thing, are the advantages of media blasting the existing paint off worth the money? It has flag blue awlgrip top sides and that paint continues All the way down and around.

Thanks as always in advance.

W

In our experience, we cannot understand why people continue to paint their boat hulls every year with antifouling paint. We got tired of the ritual of 'scraping and slapping' some years ago, and a mate recommended Coppercoat (www.coppercoat.com). We tried it and were impressed. We now have a boat that we keep in the Med, and went for it there also. Each year we see people having their boats hauled for the annual expensive ritual - each year we are glad we don't have to. Sent the diver down this year, and 70 minutes later (50' mono) he was back up, shrugging his shoulders and implying there was little to do - that was from sitting in a marina going nowhere for a year, with plenty of live-aboard's flushing their heads into the non-tidal waters. The boats either side of us certainly testified to that !
You will have to get your old stuff off, but eventually you have to do that anyway unless you like moving through the water more slowly than others. Give it a go, and let us all know how you find it in 10 years or so (getting on to 5 years so far for us on the new boat, and working beautifully).

[model 10]

[QUOTE=GILow;1896087]I hear the current record for the number of Swanson 42s cleaned is 1 per year. But I'm sure someone will beat that. :^)


I hope so.

[Training Wheels]

Personally, I'm very interested in the coppercoat. Any downside to it?


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[model 10]

[QUOTE=Training Wheels;1896182]Personally, I'm very interested in the coppercoat. Any downside to it?

How about no reports of long term success?

[David B]

Have a look at the website - plenty of reports of long-term success there. Then go to Youtube where I found a few individuals so enthused they have actually filmed the process of the first year and the fifth year etc. It is also used on some tidal power stations, and a significant number of superyachts. We came across 'illusion of the Isles' (rather nice 100 footer) in Tunisia last year - another happy chappy it seems.
Anyway, we like it, and as I said earlier, can't understand why people insist on the annual ritual of antifouling paint, but each to their own.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by David B

Have a look at the website - plenty of reports of long-term success there. Then go to Youtube where I found a few individuals so enthused they have actually filmed the process of the first year and the fifth year etc. It is also used on some tidal power stations, and a significant number of superyachts. We came across 'illusion of the Isles' (rather nice 100 footer) in Tunisia last year - another happy chappy it seems.
Anyway, we like it, and as I said earlier, can't understand why people insist on the annual ritual of antifouling paint, but each to their own.

What sort of cost is coppercoat compared to Micron for instance?

[David B]

Bit more than double, so takes two to three years to break even, and after that you're laughing

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by David B

Bit more than double, so takes two to three years to break even, and after that you're laughing

If regular bottom paint (Micron 66) is 2.5 years, 2.5 x 2.5 = 6.25 years to break even. On the other hand, horror stories abound in areas with higher fouling rates. So for most of us, we would need to be sure of 8-10 years before this is interesting... and even then, are we going to still have the boat in 8-10 more years? Probably not.

Does it save us the hastle of hauling? Most of us will haul from some reason every 2.5 years anyway. I know I have a few project scheduled for my next haul-out in spring 2016 (new through hull, keel modifications), which will also require some painting even if I had CopperCoat!

So while it sounds like it works for you, many people have different math. A lot of things are like that.

[David B]

They are indeed. Certainly not for everyone, but works for us and 50 odd thousand others apparently.
On the boat, my observation is it is like houses. Some people change them regularly - others (two houses in 36 years for us) not often at all. Boats are the same for us. Our little 22 footer we have had since 2001, and our new pride and joy since 2012, but we are intending to keep her for quite some time yet (lot of work turning a cruising boat into a home !)

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Training Wheels

Personally, I'm very interested in the coppercoat. Any downside to it?

You mean besides the fact that it doesn't work for sh*t?

[GrahamHO]

Originally Posted by Guy

I must be a slacker. It usually takes me 2 days to clean the bottom of 1 boat.

Faster than me.
If a guy can clean 23 boats in a day you wouldn't need to pay him much for 1.

[David B]

Bit aggressive mate ! Wrong colour for Coppercoat - I think you are confusing with another product.
I'm not getting into a slanging match regarding this, so will leave it at that, but there are a lot of people who are very happy with it (other than yards and divers who lose out on work that is)

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by David B

Bit aggressive mate ! Wrong colour for Coppercoat - I think you are confusing with another product.
I'm not getting into a slanging match regarding this, so will leave it at that, but there are a lot of people who are very happy with it (other than yards and divers who lose out on work that is)

Not mistaking it for anything else and certainly not losing any work because of it. Maybe it works just fine in whatever part of the world you do your boating in but I guarantee almost no one is using it here. With good reason.