What is your antifoul secret for props and shafts?

[hd002e]

I have heard anything from going bare to slapping (hair removal) hot wax on the prop, horse antibiotics to copper oxide dust mixed with antifoul paint. I haven’t had much luck with anything besides the suoer expensize and hard to apply pellerclean. Now I am out of the water and would like to try something else. What are your recommendations?

[SailingHarmonie]

PropSpeed. It works.

Still expensive, it is not difficult to apply, but you do have to follow instructions.

[NevilleCat]

Seems to crop up regularly on here so there should be plenty of threads to search....
Think they mostly come down to prop speed....

[Wotname]

I only know of two procedures that work.
1. Propspeed - if applied 100% correctly
2. keeping the prop dry - as in, on the hard.

While #2 is guaranteed to work for the long term, #1 makes it easier to use the boat

[s/v Jedi]

If you can’t swim to clean the prop then an antifouling is needed. If you can swim then we found a highly polished prop is just fine. After a couple of months some growth is on the prop but it’s easy to wipe off, like a crust that crumbles away. It only works when the prop is polished to a mirror finish.

Last time we put regular antifouling on. This works for a while, then it’s back to scraping. We also use the spray cans of cold galvanize which also work.

I think products like prop speed may last a bit longer but I don’t think they are worth the cost.

[FTS]

I had Prop Speed professionally applied last year. By the time I hauled out two weeks ago the propeller and prop shaft on my little boat were badly fouled.

I have the good fortune to keep my boat in a family run marina, and the owner's comments on Prop Speed reflect what everyone else has said. Prop Speed is a good product but difficult to get applied correctly. He suggested Pettit Barnacle Barrier so I'm trying that out this year.

One thing I am curious about: is it possible that local conditions may make one product work better or be less effective? FWIW I'm on the lower Chesapeake.

[rslifkin]

We're in a fairly low fouling area, but I just prime the underwater metals and put the same paint on that I've got on the hull. It's good enough to keep the zebra mussels off and while I still get slime on the running gear, it's significantly less than the other boats I see locally with unpainted running gear (the props in particular shed slime well when painted).

[fstbttms]

There is nothing better than Propspeed

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by FTS

I had Prop Speed professionally applied last year. By the time I hauled out two weeks ago the propeller and prop shaft on my little boat were badly fouled.

Propspeed is not an anti fouling coating. It has no biocides and will not retard fouling growth. It is a foul-release coating and therefore anything that attaches is very easily removed however.

[Paul Klein]

At least 5 thin coats of whatever you are using on the hull!!. Put a coat on with an almost dry roller every time you are near the prop. I've been using this method for 30 years in a high growth tropical area and it lasts at least 12 months.

[NorthCoastJoe]

My boat has fresh Prop Speed as of December. Just traveled from Hawaii to SF with about 170 hours of motoring. I will have to jump in and see how it looks now.

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by FTS

I had Prop Speed professionally applied last year. By the time I hauled out two weeks ago the propeller and prop shaft on my little boat were badly fouled.

I have the good fortune to keep my boat in a family run marina, and the owner's comments on Prop Speed reflect what everyone else has said. Prop Speed is a good product but difficult to get applied correctly. He suggested Pettit Barnacle Barrier so I'm trying that out this year.

One thing I am curious about: is it possible that local conditions may make one product work better or be less effective? FWIW I'm on the lower Chesapeake.

I don't think there is anywhere in the world where you can go more than 2 months without _some_ cleaning, even with antifouling. Most places are more like a monthly clean, and some are bi-weekly. So, I wouldn't take that it was applied last year and fouled now as any indication that it doesn't work. The real question is, was the fouling easily removed, or did you need to use a grinder and scraper to get it off? Propspeed makes for easy cleaning, when a prop without propspeed, if left for a year, is seriously difficult to clean.

[Mirage35]

Originally Posted by Wotname

I only know of two procedures that work.
1. Propspeed - if applied 100% correctly
2. keeping the prop dry - as in, on the hard.

While #2 is guaranteed to work for the long term, #1 makes it easier to use the boat

Sailing in fresh water seems pretty effective as well.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Mirage35

Sailing in fresh water seems pretty effective as well.

I guess you don't have fresh water mussels in your area

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Propspeed is not an anti fouling coating. It has no biocides and will not retard fouling growth. It is a foul-release coating and therefore anything that attaches is very easily removed however.

^^ THIS

My limited observations suggest that the sooner the stuff that attaches to a prop is removed, the better it works. Running a Propspeed coated prop regularly seems to be more effective than letting the prop just sit unused in the water.