Anti-Fouling - Lets Talk About It

[Windjammr Spirt]

Cayenne pepper is the trick for sure. I forget the ratio, but I will find out for you. I remember it was a lot! Here in Central America on the Pacific side we have incredible barnacle growth...I've never seen any place like it. But with the cayenne pepper and another chemical added to my bottom paint, I can dive on my hull and remove all the HUGE barnacles almost with my hand. They still grow, but removal is simple. I'll also get that chemical name, it's too early in the morning right now to remember these things!

- Steve

[clockwork orange]

Have you considered copper sheathing, a friend of mine who lives in Ft Myers sheathed the bottom of his wooden 28 ft sharpie and it seems to work well,the boat lives in a canal year round.It cost a bit to do but the payback will come after about 5 yrs. Should keep the worms away too.
Steve.

[Sander Sternig]

Originally Posted by Ram

h/g vEGA

Originally Posted by Ram

EXCUSE ME FOR ASKNG- I know this has nothing to do with the paint- WHAT BOAT - does 12-14 knots Im intrested in seeing a picture if you happen to have one- or many

I have a 24' Raven monohull (1954), 1200 lbs, 18' boom, 34' mast. Another Raven in our fleet hit 26' knots after his outhaul block broke. I have made over 20 knots downwind, board up on mine and I race in the middle of the fleet. We have done 360s around J105s during a race just to watch them race.

We use an ablative paint but not Micron. The hull is scrubbed just before a race and by the end of the summer most of the ablative is gone.

Sandy

[Alan N Crichton]

Originally Posted by Ram

I wonder f there is anything we could add to the paint to make it last longer - like mixing fine copper dust ?

I have Coppercoat on the hull which contains 2kg fine copper for every litre - looking at the hull after 14 months not sure it works !

[s/v Jedi]

We have CopperClad (applied while molding the hull) and these guys were lucky the warranty ran out just before I bought the boat!

cheers,
Nick.

[Ram]

I confess- I have not repainted the bottom since the boat was new(3 years) because It did not really seem like it needed it at the time of the last haul out -and now there is almost no paint left all of last year -after the haul out the paint went very fast , seems it went over night almost-so I had to wind up scrapeing it about once a month and then useing a scrubby pad- this takes about 3-4 hours a month and not nearly as bad as I would have thought it would- so I find a nice bay and jump in the water for a few hours a month-
I was supriced it how easy it was to keep clean and then my girlfriend noted that its much more ecologically friendly and my thoughts were- I just saved about $1000 usd- so Im not sure if I will paint it this year or not-

[s/v Jedi]

Ram: that's what we did for almost two years! If you decide to go that way, have a look at the anti-stick paints like teflon based. These will make the job much easier.

In Holland, they tested this combined with scrubbing-stations in a marina. Think of huge rotating brushes much like used in a car wash... but underwater. You drive your boat in, push the button et voila! I think it failed though because parts of the hull were missed etc.

cheers,
Nick.

[waverider]

Originally Posted by Ram

h/g vEGA
EXCUSE ME FOR ASKNG- I know this has nothing to do with the paint- WHAT BOAT - does 12-14 knots Im intrested in seeing a picture if you happen to have one- or many

Hi Ram,

Not that this is related to bottom paint. You asked about boat speed and what boat will do 10 to 12 knots. I have a friend actually a couple that sail on the Bluenose II, she is a replica of the original Bluenose and has unofficially been clocked at 22 knots.

www.bluenose2.ns.ca/

The original was Bluenose was undefeated 18 years straight in Racing and is a Canadian Ledgend.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by waverider

You asked about boat speed and what boat will do 10 to 12 knots. I have a friend actually a couple that sail on the Bluenose II, she is a replica of the original Bluenose and has unofficially been clocked at 22 knots.

So, I can't resist any longer ;-)

The way to do 10-12 knots is waterline length, bringing the hull speed to that region. Jedi has a 64' waterline and does 11 kts regularly and I calculate our hull speed at 12 kts.

The only way to overcome hull speed is planing. Many boats plane while coming down a wave but they fall back to <= hull speed after the wave passes. I would call that surfing, not planing. There are many yachts than can sustain planing without the help of waves: all modern racers and some cruisers and the Sundeer and Beowulf designs can do this. You need to be light- or ultra-light displacement (where a long waterline helps again) and have a flat aft-end of the hull. I think the Sundeer 64 was designed to be stable during planing up to 26 kts. We have been planing even when we didn't want it, with just mizzen and jib !

cheers,
Nick.

[Sandero]

I am considering not applying a coat of bottom paint this year and instead contracting with a diver to scrub the bottom every 4 weeks or so over the season here in NE. That should cost me less, harm the environment less and provide some work for a diver. I still have layers of antifouling on the bottom which may be even OK with a sanding and scrubbing when I haul out.

Any comments?

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by defjef

Any comments?

Sounds like a plan for your area to me, but I doubt the environmental savings. Divers need air and to compress that air, pollutes etc. The first year or so also results in the antifouling left on the hull to end up in the environment. But once that's gone, you can opt for the hard teflon paint to save dive-time and only growth comes off. If you're really concerned with the environment, you could remove the antifouling and replace it with the teflon paint on the hard... assuming the yard takes care of safe disposal of the antifouling.

cheers,
Nick.

[Strygaldwir]

Before I painted my hulls 2.5 years ago, I stripped and faired them. I then put 3 coats of Interlux Interprotect 2000. I have just finished prepping the hulls again for repainting. The Interprotect is amazing stuff! No blisters the stuff is hard, has not come off and only has a few abrassion on the bottom of the keels and rudders. Hmmm. maybe those slight groundings had something to do with that! In any case I am very impressed with its protective properties.

On a separate note, I used Interlux Ultra. That held up very well the first year, the second year I had to start cleaning the bottom. All the anti fouling properties had disappeared. Originally intended to pull the boat after a year and apply another coat. Just never got around to that. Well, I'll apply two coats this year. Maybe get to the another coat next winter.

[mrohr]

hi all,how about driveway sealer? or maybe mixed with cayenne pepper? I just love low tech solutions.

[H/V Vega]

Hummmmm! Great ideas if you have a plastic boat or even steel. But I think my original question was about protecting wood from the little monsters that try to eat it. Any ideas there? We have Jotun Sea Quantum ultra on now and it does seem to be working just fine in very warm waters.

[viajaero]

Originally Posted by Alan N Crichton

I have Coppercoat on the hull which contains 2kg fine copper for every litre - looking at the hull after 14 months not sure it works !

We are in the third year after applying Coppercoat and so far are very happy with it.

Cleaning the hulls is very easy and depending on the cost for haul out it can pay off before 5 years are over.