What Is the Best Anti-Fouling Bottom Paint

[mangomuffins]

cheechako,

I called the jotun office in tampa inquiring about jotun "black" bottom paint.

Here is what they said.

since your bottom was done in trinidad, the paint might be Sea Quantum which can be sold in the U.S. but not applied here.

They have a paint called Sea Force which comes in a 200 series (36 mo. life) and 400 (60 mo.). The 400 is supposed to be equivalent to the Sea Quantum.

prices are comparable with other paints and are available in 1 gal. and 5 gal. cans.

I also looked at the "your barnacle solution" video...looks interesting and the test site in the video is close by in ft. myers so this could be "the thing" for Florida's barnacle laden waters.

Do you know if your paint was Sea Quantum??

mm

[Cheechako]

If memory serves, the Sea Force name is familiar... It was avail in 5 gal only in Trinidad.

[whatever]

We are reviewing all info for bottom paints as well. We had bottom done in fall 2006 and looking to do again this fall. I am thinking it is Trinidad on it now. All our cruising and docking is in Florida so we are in high growth areas. Even in previously barnacle free "Crystal River" all boats in the marina are getting hard growth except for a sailboat that had a bottom job done in La. before he brought a Hurricane Katrina salvage boat here. Local divers say they dived on his boat and were amazed at how little growth he had, he told them cayenne pepper was added to the bottom paint at the bottom paint. What our question about that is: does anyone have the recipe???how much Cayenne pepper would be added? Secondly, all the talk on the subjuct keeps mentioning Coppercoat, copper powder, etc..we were under the impression copper based bottom paint was outlawed in the US. Is this true, or can we use copper based paints? Thanks for all info

[Cheechako]

I think copper is the only thing left in the US paints to get rid of the growth. TBT tin was outlawed. I have heard mixed reports about cayenne, but if it's working in your area why not. Dont know the formula.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by whatever

...we were under the impression copper based bottom paint was outlawed in the US. Is this true, or can we use copper based paints? Thanks for all info

Copper-based paint is currently legal in the U.S. Zinc-based paints are also becoming popular in California.

[Ex-Calif]

We've had our best results so far with Micron Extra. We couldn't afford Micron 66.

Our growth is extremely aggressive.

[TritonSailor]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

We've had our best results so far with Micron Extra. We couldn't afford Micron 66.

Our growth is extremely aggressive.

I agree, when I had my home in Cali, my neighbor had an Island Packet I used to sail out of the bay area. They used Micron Extra and could go a couple of years before having to haul out to repaint bottom again. If they did a stint in the tropics though, they usually got a year and a half out of it. Cleaning was easy, I know I was usually the one in a wetsuit doing the scrubbing and that water was a balmy 56 degrees lol

[donradcliffe]

Micron Extra lasted less than two months without scraping in Trinidad, but everything fell off when I went to Maine.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Micron Extra lasted less than two months without scraping in Trinidad, but everything fell off when I went to Maine.

Yup - YMMV.

Here in the warmer climes we have had no luck with hard coats - 9/10 months. Every couple of months we were still scraping barnacles off.

We went with ablative soft coat Micron Extra and it turns into a slippery surface that, if kept up with, allows us to wipe away the slime every 4 weeks or so. It is not a scraping process at all. We use something like cloth mits to hand wipe the coating.

It is ablative and is designed to disappear over time. It has been on for 14 months now and we are planning to add a few coats in a month or so. The good news here is the quote for adding coats is about half of what the original job cost as we took the original coatings off through about 6 different color layers last year prior to a sealing coat.

This year is top coat only.

Regards to it falling off or other quality problems we haven't seen that.

I am convinced that different climates and water conditions require different solutions.

What I do need to find is something to put on our max prop. It fouls badly in 4-6 weeks.

[Pblais]

I am convinced that different climates and water conditions require different solutions.

Growth varies greatly depending on temperature and salinity. Given the trend toward environmentally friendly paints you need to check around the marinas and with other locals to see what actually works best in your own area. Higher levels of salt and warmer water usually means more growth can be expected. Seasonal variations also come into lay as well.

The idea that there is a "best paint" is not true any more now that the most effective solutions are too toxic to allow their use. Promises of an ultimate solution are almost always false.

[TritonSailor]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

What I do need to find is something to put on our max prop. It fouls badly in 4-6 weeks.

Ex-Calif,

Have you tried Interlux Trilux? It's an expensive can, but does the job.

Regards,

Jeff

[Pblais]

What I do need to find is something to put on our max prop. It fouls badly in 4-6 weeks.

Around here all that stuff lasts about 6 to 9 months tops. I only haul every other year and dive it April through November. So for the same money you can pay to have a diver clean it once a month. At least with a diver you'll find other problems sooner rather than later.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by TritonSailor

Ex-Calif,

Have you tried Interlux Trilux? It's an expensive can, but does the job.

Regards,

Jeff

Thanks for the tip. I don't need much so maybe that helps if I can source it here.

[Steve Pope]

I have used Trilux and Trilux33, having an alloy hull I don't have the luxury of a large choice of antifouls, I found Trilux to be better than the (much) more expensive Trilux 33
I got around a year out of the trilux but had to clean (scrub) several times in that year. At one time I went into the Kaipara harbour (longest coast line of any harbour in the Southern Hemisphere)and within 4 weeks had grass up to 150mm growing on the Trilux, once we sailed out of there the growth reduced to what it had been prior to going there. Currently on the Trilux 33, we had barnacles after 6 weeks, slimes up quite badly with some grass showing after 3 months. I wouldn't use it again! I'm still looking for a replacement for the now prohibited TBT based anti foul. That was good for up to 4 years. Now only the Navy is allowed to use it.

[bottompaint]

From the October 2009 Issue of Practical Sailor:
"

Sea hawk

Sea Hawk Paints has been fairly active in launching new eco-friendly blends. Past winners of Practical Sailor tests include its low-VOC, water-based Monterey paint, which provided 18 months of barnacle-free protection for one of our Florida-based test boats. Sea Hawk’s budget-priced Sharkskin makes it into the top of the ranks in the 12-month tables, while a few of the more expensive Sea Hawk blends stood out in the two-year comparison.
Bottom line: Loaded with copper, Sea Hawk’s Cukote is a contender in the high-copper, expensive ablative category. AF-33 (ablative) and Sharkskin (hard) compete in the Budget Buy category."