What Is the Best Anti-Fouling Bottom Paint

[irwinsailor]

I went with Pettit Vivid last year after talking to the company rep at the Chicago boat show. So far I'm happy with it. He said that it was a very good choice for salt water too.

[Robertcateran]

There are a lot of types of marine growth.Molluscs polychaete worms, crustaceans, corals, sponges, algae, cunji, but not any fungi as I recall. Cayenne pepper is supposed to be good for any of the animals, and therer are many different algicides used for different algae. Part of my PhD was studying various algae in small lagoons, and was quite suprised at the differences associated with the leachates from gum trees and ti trea. Some of them stopped green and red algal growth and cyanobacteria dead and affected the calcium carbonate depositing critters. Apart from suspect stability of the chemicals involved, I reckon they might be worth a go. How you go about concentrating them into a form that can be added to paint, I don't know. Meanwhile, I'll stick to copper and chilli added to a urethane or epoxy paint,
Robert
Ro

[cabo_sailor]

Although one poster has a negative opinion of Seahawk, I get very good results with it in the Gulf. Two coats on the bottom and three or four coats at the waterline last about 2 to 2.5 years.

With regards to the cayenne pepper. It may work but be darned careful sanding your bottom. The cayenne in the dust can get into your skin and be rather unpleasant.

[avazquez]

Originally Posted by irwinsailor

I went with Pettit Vivid last year after talking to the company rep at the Chicago boat show. So far I'm happy with it. He said that it was a very good choice for salt water too.

Well it may work fine in other parts of the globe but I had a HORRIBLE experience with VIVID here in the caribbean. I even contacted Petit and the response was none. I even spoke with them at the Miami Boatshow and the response was NONE. Actually last week I received a call from a friend that used VIVID four moths ago and is going through the same bad experience. So if you are in the caribbean I would try to use other paints.

[Connemara]

On a slightly different topic, how should I paint my prop in fresh water?

I used VC17 on the bottom last year (first year with the boat) and when we hauled, I had a couple of wee zebra mussels on the prop. I doubt they interfered with Connemara's blazing speed, but still....

To add some detail, the engine is an OMC saildrive with a two-bladed prop. Saw a picture somewhere of a hull painted with VC17 and the prop and saildrive a lovely gleaming black.

Connemara

[sailor02653]

I purchased a catamaran last summer that was in a lake in KY. When she was hauled and pressure washed there was only light fouling on the CopperPoxy painted bottom. I sailed her back to Cape Cod and when I hauled at seasons end there was considerable growth that was easily removed. The paint is 6 years old and looks in good shape except in a few areas. I found a quart of CopperPoxy and the hardener aboard however the hardener has leaked. The question is can I use regular epoxy hardener to make up the missing amount. I am impressed with the condition of the bottom and feel the growth could have been controlled with occasional scrubbing which I am willing to do. American Marine Coatings is apparently defunct so I cannot inquire there so perhaps someone here knows.

[rbernard0]

I have used Trindad in the past with sucess. I live in Gulfport, MS. and sail in the Gulf. With 2 main coats of Trindad + 2 additional on the waterline and leading edges of the foils I can get 1 great year of no growth + 1 year of ok performance and 1 final year of cleaning every couple of months while planning the next haul out.

What I don't like about Trindad is the rough surface that forms with the leaching of the copper. The rough surface slow the boat and seems to allow slime to attach.

I have tried using Micron CSC but found that the boat did not get fast enought and often enought to keep the growth off. I would dive the boat for cleaning and seemed to wipe most of the bottom paint off.

How about Vivid???? Petit seems big on it and you can get it in white. White lets slime and other growth really stand out which is great for scrubing with SCUBA. The Vivid is harder then CSC etc so it should stand up better.

That my theory. Anyone have had experience?

[avazquez]

Originally Posted by rbernard0

How about Vivid???? Petit seems big on it and you can get it in white. White lets slime and other growth really stand out which is great for scrubing with SCUBA. The Vivid is harder then CSC etc so it should stand up better.

That my theory. Anyone have had experience?

I tried Vivid and it has been a nightmare. Growth all over. I would stay far away from it. Its been only about 15 months and I will do the bottom AGAIN thanks to PETIT. I am considering one of the JOTUN products which seem to be successful in this area (Fajardo Puerto Rico).

[Sandero]

I was speaking to a sailor working on clearing out his boat, he is retiring and moving to FL. He was watching me apply bottom paint to my RIB and we discussed the horror of bottom paint. I had just been hosed by Brewers to haul, wash, block, prep (only an hr of sanding) and application of one coat of cheap West bottom paint, apply a zinc and relaunch for the sum of $1,600.

He noted that he gets a diver fo $50 to scrub his bottom. Do the math - 1600/50 = 32 dives/scrubs at once per week this comes to 8 months! How about once every 5 days = that's 5 months of sailing here in the NE /LIS area. Why even bother with polluting nasty bottom paint? And you can employ some divers instead of profit and so forth for Jack Brewer and West Marine and so on.

Then he mentioned some machine which is like a car wash which scrapes bottoms. My idea is a submersible robot along the lines of those vacuum cleaners deployed from the bow and it does your bottom while you have breakfast!

Bottom paint is a rip off, an environmental disaster and waste of time.

We need to stop with this nonsense.

[Alan Wheeler]

I had just been hosed by Brewers to haul, wash, block, prep (only an hr of sanding) and application of one coat of cheap West bottom paint, apply a zinc and relaunch for the sum of $1,600.

For RIB??? Have I miss understood something?
My 45ft'er costs NZ$800 to haul, waterblast and recoat, including the cost of the anti-foul coating. $1600 is a rip off IMO.

[Fishspearit]

Originally Posted by defjef

I had just been hosed by Brewers to haul, wash, block, prep (only an hr of sanding) and application of one coat of cheap West bottom paint, apply a zinc and relaunch for the sum of $1,600

Yea, you got hosed alright. I just priced it down here in St. Augustine FL and it's under $700 for a 39'

[svcattales]

I've used Petit Trinidad and Micron Extra and prefer the MICRON Extra in Tampa Florida area. I put on 3 full coats on the hulls and an extra coat on the water line. I can get about 3 years between haulouts and I don't get a build up of many layers of paint like I did with Petit Trinidad. Since our last haulout we have sailed about 6000 miles and the paint is still doing pretty well after 28 months. The first year it stays clean by itself, the second year I have to scrape away the slime periodically, and the third year I have to clean slime about every 60 days in the warm months. I do my own bottom cleaning and I'm careful not to wipe away my expensive paint. I use a 6" nylon scraper and scape off the slime without removing much paint. If I were to brush the bottom, the paint would probably be gone in a year.

[hideaway]

Good fresh air works everytime. Sorry buts Friday and the suns over something. regards Peter

[Delezynski]

We used CopperPoxy on our bottom and got a good 11 (thats right, eleven) years out of it. We replaced it with some other stuff (USA bought) here in Mexico. We are VERY unhappy with it! You can read about it in our last "Gear Report" listed on our "Position Reports" web page.

Next year we ARE going back to CopperPoxy or something like it!

If you do a Google search with our name and CopperPoxy you can read a number of our old reports. And some of the reports by our diver at the time.

Greg

[Sandero]

The $1,600 was for a 36' sailboat silly. The conversation took place on the floating dock where I was doing the dink's bottom.

Anyone in LIS area pay considerably less for this? I will do it there next time.