What is the Best Anti fouling Paint

[Talbot]

$220 for a US gallon of a very effective anti-foul. sounds like a bargain to me.

Up until a couple of years ago I was using International Micron at abt £80 for 2 litres and that only lasts for abt a year

what makes it hurt even more is the need for 6 litres for a decent coverage.

[Alan Wheeler]

Yeah that Micron is expensive stuff. I ran out of AF3000 when I last painted the hull. So I put on some CSC to finish the area. I must say that the AF3000 was slightly better, but the difference was very minimal. I got 2.5 yrs out of the stuff before recently repainting. Only had a bit of slime on the hull. I rolled on two coats then, which took 14ltrs. This time the yard sprayed it on and used 10ltrs. I only need 12mths this time, as we are going to give the hull a compleate paint next year.

[LaLeLu]

Trinadad SR works best here in Florida.

[ssullivan]

We used the West Marine brand (made by Petit) ablative paint with the highest CO content. Can't remember the exact one, but it was the highest CO content WM sells and it's actually just Petit re-labeled.

It worked well during the summer as we cruised up to Maine and back - not much of a challenge for bottom paint. It isn't great with the brackish slime present in Long Island sound, however. Looks like I'll have to take a swim before winter and scrub off some of the slime.

[hellosailor]

Instead of sanding, which is going to gouge the gelcoat and permanently remove some of it, why not use media blasting? Typically using baking soda or walnut shells, a media that will remove the old paint WITHOUT damaging the gel coat. That way you don't need the extra barrier paint, although using it would be extra protection.

I kinda prefer the old first aid adage "First, do no harm". I can't think that using 40-grit into the gel coat is a good idea at all, not when there are better ways to remove old paint. Even to use a chemical stripper!

Which bottom paint is best, let alone "better"...dunno but unless you are racing or scrubbing the hull every week, I'm beginning to lean toward ablative. What's the worst thing that happens? Something grows...and you need to scrub it. Hard paint is gonna need that scrubbing anyway.<G>

(Although I have been impressed by a local racer who uses Baltoplate, and I'll swear he has a permanent staff who haul the polish and polish it with thousand grit longboards every week. Damned thing makes the custom paint jobs on show cars look shoddy!)

[Brent Swain]

I've used ablative a couple of times returing to BC from Tonga , the last time non stop 5.000 miles. While it works great while you are moving, it becomes quite useless when you stop. If you scrub it , you scrub it off. Once the growth is on, it doesn't falll off when you move again. Stuff made for yachts in Marinas all washes off in the first 2,000 miles. It's too soft. Stuff made for feriies is made for full time motion. It stays on welll at sea, but is too hard to work in port for a couple of weeks.
I prefer the hard epoxy antifouling, quite scrubbable. There is 25% copper for colder waters and 70% for warmer waters .
People cruising Mexico tell me that the first thing you should do when you get there is put some of their Mexican antifouling on. It works there , ours doesn't.
Brent

[Brent Swain]

Pull a huge poly tarp under your boat , let it float up against the hull, then pour a gallon of bleach in. Leave it overnight and by mornin there will be no slime left. Don't worry about the environmental dammage . Overnight, houses around you will dump many gallons down the drain, daily , not once a year.
Brent

[Canibul]

Originally Posted by Louis Riel

Don't worry about the environmental dammage . Overnight, houses around you will dump many gallons down the drain, daily , not once a year.
Brent

I am not sure why, but I dont react well to that sentiment.

Would it be okay if I just killed one person this year, because serial killers around us kill many times that in a year?

[Alan Wheeler]

No I am not leaning toward it either. I know some harbours around NZ have some terrible issues with waste going int ehm, but there are a lot that don't, including the one I am birthed in.
Plus, how do we change things if we have that attitude.
It's like someone throwing litter onto the road from a moving car. I see it happen, I see the results, I destest it, but how can I protest against it if I throw my onw McD's rubbish out the window just because others do it.

[hellosailor]

"Would it be okay if I just killed one person this year," So you're asking if it would be OK if you kill just one, as opposed to the many you kill in the usual year?<VBG>

As long as you kill the one that's been dumping the garbage, sounds OK to me.

Wheels-
"but how can I protest against it if I throw my onw McD's rubbish out the window just because others do it." The redneck in me says that's an easy one. Require the fast food restaurants to offer a $5 deposit on each wrapper they use. Now the kids & bums can earn good money by collecting wrappers from the street, and if the fast food chains don't want to charge their customers the extra $5 per burger...they can either go back to using plates, or hand 'em over bare.

There are very few problems that can't be solved with a little creative thought. Unfortunately, legislators and politicians are rarely capable of thought. Or creativity. (sigh.)

Now that soda bottle litter in the US has been reduced by bottle deposits...bottled water has become the craze, and deposit-free water bottles form the litter in urban parks. I'd like to see the deposit raised from the current 5-10c to 50c-$1 per. At that point I'd be GLAD to pick up the trash.

[Geoff S.]

Ahoy, Guys n' Gals, long time no post.

A scoche off-topic, but just how inclined are our Feds or Coasties to scrutinize the legality of a USCG-registered boat's choice in bottom paint, upon entering US waters? I have a vague anecdotal horror story from one of my project managers in Trini, that a client of theirs had some antifouling put on (sorry, don't remember what brand) in Trinidad which upon hauling and inspection in Florida was deemed illegal, and the owner had to pony up something egregious (like $15K) to have the Feds blast and repaint it. Anybody else heard stories like this?

Gallivanter's endorsement of Jotun is very attractive; and the previous conversation about bleach notwithstanding, I have a rather cynical attitude about relative international environmental laws (the US's current environmental law, IMHO, is more a function of political will than fact-based world-nurturing). But I'd rather not have to pay the Feds milspec pricing to repaint my bottom someday...

[chuckr]

i can only tell you what we have experienced so far. about 13 months ago i painted soulmates with with micron 66 - we had a lightening strike and she sat for several months until all the work was done. then a new cutlass - when we pulled she looked as good as the day she was painted. by the way she is in miami with very warm water --
just my experience so far
chuck and soulmates

[hellosailor]

Goeff, if Trinidad still allows TBT they would be considered a renegade state these days. There's an international ban on TBT going back to the 80's and approaching "global" status these days.

http://www.imo.org/Environment/mainf...p?topic_id=223

In the US, I don't know the specifics but TBT paint on a hull could be considered a banned pesticide and you, without licensing or exemptions to use it, could be penalized just for having it on a hull, which would be considered to be "using" the pesticide and discharging it into the waters.

$15,000 for a hazmat containment, removal, and disposal bill doesn't seem very large to me. Stiff, sure, but not in the hazmat world.

Would anyone be likely to come around sampling your hull? I can't see any reason why they would. But a $15,000 gamble (or *more*) could buy a lot of bottom paint you didn't have to worry about.

[Geoff S.]

HS,

I couldn't say if the boat in question was painted with TBT. As big a refit industry as Trini is, I'm doubtful any yard down there would defy a global ban. It's entirely possible that this owner acquired the paint himself and had the yard apply it; at any rate this situation has my manager guy thinking that they routinely haul boats upon entering US water and sample the bottom paint. I wanted to take a quick survey and see if anybody had heard of such goings-on.

Is TBT the active ingredient in Jotun? And is there anything else as universally villified as TBT that one should avoid?

[hellosailor]

Geoff-
"I'm doubtful any yard down there would defy a global ban. " It isn't GLOBAL by LAW. Yet. AFAIK there is an IMO ban, but that doesn't have the force of a UN resolution--which would still only bind member states at best.
Jotun was discussed recently, at least one of their products is indeed TBT and has been sold in Trinidad.

In terms of other things to avoid? Yes, COPPER based paints are also scheduled to be banned entirely in a few years. Again, banned only by various signatories and there's no "global lone ranger" to makes sure everyone signs.