Is Coppercoat anti foul worth it?

[old frog]

For those with external lead ballast, how has the CopperClad & base primer held up?

[David B]

Originally Posted by old frog

For those with external lead ballast, how has the CopperClad & base primer held up?

We have it on a lead stub keel (8 years now). Not sure what two-pack epoxy primer was used by the yard, but the Coppercoat on the keel is as good as the rest of the hull - all perfect with no flaking at all. I know that some datasheets for primers do mention lead as an applicable substrate, so just check that is the case with whatever primer/undercoat you are looking at using.

[leftbrainstuff]

Originally Posted by Ewan Clark

Indeed, it stands to reason that boats kept in low fouling areas require less cleaning than those in high fouling areas. This is true no matter what anti-foul is used. And as stated previously, the general rule regarding the cleaning of Coppercoat is that you should expect to do it approximately as often as would be the case of a good quality conventional anti-foul paint. So if the boats in California are cleaned 6 to 15 times a year when using normal anti-foul, it would be reasonable to expect the cleaning program to be similar for Coppercoat.

That said, fouling rates in California are generally a little lower than places such as (for example) Singapore or Recife (Brazil) or parts of the West Indies. Luckily the cooler waters of SF don't sustain some of the marine life found in these warmer locations. It probably helps to explain why we've all seen people on this forum and others comment on their treatments working perfectly well in SF, requiring no more cleaning than would be deemed normal.

Of course, the vast majority of readers of this forum will never have the opportunity to take their boats to SF Bay, so when posting up reviews on the website or facebook we try to select actual and real world comments from users all from literally all over the World. Coppercoat was applied to boats in over 80 different countries last year alone, so the feedback is indeed from a very wide field. And as the total number of users runs to many tens of thousands, as you can imagine, we certainly receive a lot of feedback!!!!

With so many data points it would be helpful to see this data augmented with survey feedback including cleaning frequency, location, climate data, etc.

This would provide all on this thread with a data driven discussion. A few graphics would tell a good story.

sv Sedoza Sakona Liberty 458 hull 12

[zeehag]

i personally am looking to the reports of a friend with one of these formosa beasties done in copper in epoxy. looks awesomely gorgeous, and launches soon.
is supposed to be a 10 year longevity factor
am watching this, as their not special price competes most favorably with traditional bottom paint.

[David B]

Originally Posted by zeehag

i personally am looking to the reports of a friend with one of these formosa beasties done in copper in epoxy. looks awesomely gorgeous, and launches soon.
is supposed to be a 10 year longevity factor
am watching this, as their not special price competes most favorably with traditional bottom paint.

Any chance of some photos? Sounds great.

[Malahi]

In my experience Coppercoat is great until you get hit by coral worm. Then it sticks like hell and is much more difficult to remove from Coppercoat than from conventional antifouling. If anyone has found an answer to this I would be delighted to hear it.

[akkebeng]

Originally Posted by Malahi

In my experience Coppercoat is great until you get hit by coral worm. Then it sticks like hell and is much more difficult to remove from Coppercoat than from conventional antifouling. If anyone has found an answer to this I would be delighted to hear it.

Coral larvae you mean?

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by akkebeng

Coral larvae you mean?

South China Sea Coral Worm. Actually a tube worm.

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by Malahi

In my experience Coppercoat is great until you get hit by coral worm. Then it sticks like hell and is much more difficult to remove from Coppercoat than from conventional antifouling. If anyone has found an answer to this I would be delighted to hear it.

That's exactly what finished us from copper clad, those bloody coral worms. We could never get rid of them except with sanding when hauled, gave up and went back to conventional paints.

[David B]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

That's exactly what finished us from copper clad, those bloody coral worms. We could never get rid of them except with sanding when hauled, gave up and went back to conventional paints.

Did you try an acid wash?

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by David B

Did you try an acid wash?

No I didn't

[David B]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

No I didn't

OK, the calcareous exoskeleton, being mainly calcium carbonate, would probably respond well (or not, depending on your perspective if you were it ) to an acid wash. Probably similar to acid washing bricks to remove surface mortar.

There are a few traces in places on our hull, but nothing so far that a scrape from time to time does not remove very easily. Five seasons so far, and very pleased we went with Coppercoat.

[donradcliffe]

And what does the acid wash do to the copper??

[David B]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

And what does the acid wash do to the copper??

Good question.

For the typical acids used in boat washes such as hydrochloric, muriatic, oxalic (best for rust and stain removal), there is no significant effect on copper other than cleaning. The acid that would attack copper (and very quickly) is nitric, but there is no way you would be using that!

[lateral]

For any DIYers, my non-water based epoxy carrier copper coat has performed splendidly so far.
I have just done the second clean in the first year, and it was extremely easy to clean. (As opposed to the RIB, which I ended up having to use pickling gel to remove the calcium carbonate deposits.)
At < than a third of cost of commercial CC, and not polluting the ocean with ablative residue, I`m very pleased.
I will add, that you have to be very particular on the details of application or your mmv.
Also, my requirement was:
* Easy clean
* No sloughing off of paint into the ocean.
* As benign impact as possible
* as long as possible between repaints.

Imo, any body that expects to ply the ocean with hull that is so toxic that nothing can survive on it doesn't deserve the privilege.