Copper Coat bottom cleaning

[N-Aimless]

Hola, Had Copper Coat applied last year. I have read that you are not supposed to use metal scrapers to clean the bottom. I've been using plastic drywall taping knives. Copper Coat has been out for quite awhile now with the reviews being mostly favorable. I figure by now maybe someone has come out with bottom cleaning scrapers specifically for Copper Coated hulls.

What is the consensus on a good set of scrapers to safely use on Copper Coat bottoms?

Being in the Rio Dulce, fresh water, all we get is a film of sludge. Plastic knives worked fine. However this summer we had a lot of salt water intrusion into the river and lake system. As a result I had several barnacles spotted around the hull. The plastic knives are too flexible. They skip right over the barnacles. I have a couple of smaller non flexible plastic scrappers that are more firm which worked, with some real effort. But the plastic gets nicks in it and cracks. That scraper broke before completing the job.

[Chotu]

General question about copper coat. Is scrubbing with a stiff bristle brush OK?

I’m not advising you on how to clean the barnacles or your situation, I’m just curious in general

[Leadfree]

Get a bamboo kitchen spatula. The bamboo is durable, the fibers are gently abrasive, and it can be resharpened. And you're not putting plastic in the water.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by N-Aimless

Copper Coat has been out for quite awhile now with the reviews being mostly favorable.

Surely you jest

Originally Posted by N-Aimless

I figure by now maybe someone has come out with bottom cleaning scrapers specifically for Copper Coated hulls.

Yeah, not so much. To remove shelled animals from CopperCoat, if you want a durable, effective tool to do it you'll need to use a metal blade. That's just the nature of the beast. And if you try hard, you can get rid of your CopperCoat at the same time

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Surely you jest



Yeah, not so much. To remove shelled animals from CopperCoat, if you want a durable, effective tool to do it you'll need to use a metal blade. That's just the nature of the beast. And if you try hard, you can get rid of your CopperCoat at the same time

Not a fan of Coppercoat? Why not? I ask because we’re planning to apply Coppercoat as I’m not keen to be regularly cleaning our hulls in near freezing water in our future cruising grounds.

[Wandering1]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Not a fan of Coppercoat? Why not? I ask because we’re planning to apply Coppercoat as I’m not keen to be regularly cleaning our hulls in near freezing water in our future cruising grounds.

We have had coppercoat for 15 years on two boats. The current boat is having an osmosis treatment so coppercoat will be going on when that is completed.
We find that coppercoat is no better than conventional antifouling paints but on balance, we prefer to be able to scrub the bottom monthly using a hookah than scrub off the ablative type bottom paints. Being epoxy, we can get a very smooth and clean bottom. Good for performance and it last several years. It's all about the application in a temperature controlled environment.
If you don't move the boat often, it will foul up. Keep cruising and it works well. I high fouling areas, it will get barnacles. It's only copper. No other nasty chemicals

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Not a fan of Coppercoat? Why not? I ask because we’re planning to apply Coppercoat as I’m not keen to be regularly cleaning our hulls in near freezing water in our future cruising grounds.

He is in SF bay area diving and scraping bottoms of pier queens. Apparently CC doesn't works there very well..

[nigel1]

I have had CC for the past 10 years, been pleased weith it, but I'm in the coldish sea water of the Irish sea. From reading various threads on CC at this forum, it looks like CC works better in cold water, than in warmer water.


I occasionally get some small areas of hard growth on the hull (I only haul out every second year) Using a thin bladed metal scraper gets rid of them easily, and has not had a detrimental effect on the coating.


Other than using a scraper to get rid of the hard growth, a pressure washer removes the slime, followed up with a light going over with a scouring pad.

[Leadfree]

Originally Posted by Wandering1

We have had coppercoat for 15 years on two boats.

Please let us know where your boats are, as fouling rates greatly vary depending on location. Thx

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Not a fan of Coppercoat? Why not?

My experience with this product is that in places where fouling is an actual concern, CopperCoat is a poor performer. It simply doesn't have the anti fouling horsepower to do the job well. Further, even with regular maintenance, it is very difficult to clean. Fortunately in the Bay Area, we don't have to deal with it often, as it is not particularly popular here. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to any of my customers.

Clearly, there are plenty of people who have good things to say about it, but I suspect that the majority of them do their boating in regions of low fouling like this guy Teddy, who apparently is in Alaska, FFS

[PippaB]

If you want a multi-year review of Coppercoat, you can check out Migration's story and make up your own mind about the whys and hows:

https://coppercoat.brucebalan.com/

https://brucebalan.com/coppercoat/updates.html

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

My experience with this product is that in places where fouling is an actual concern, CopperCoat is a poor performer. It simply doesn't have the anti fouling horsepower to do the job well. Further, even with regular maintenance, it is very difficult to clean. Fortunately in the Bay Area, we don't have to deal with it often, as it is not particularly popular here. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to any of my customers.

Clearly, there are plenty of people who have good things to say about it, but I suspect that the majority of them do their boating in regions of low fouling like this guy Teddy, who apparently is in Alaska, FFS

Not Alaska but Nordic.. It's not low fouling in the Arctic, it's just short season but during that time it really isn't "low". Winter time it's non existent phenomen.

[caradow]

I can only say my experience with Copper Coat in the Caribbean has not been positive. In fact it is the worst bottom paint I have ever used. Just had it removed from my boat, applied Sea Hawk and very satisfied. I have used Sea Hawk on my other boats also without complaints. I do know one other person who had CC and stated he was tired of cleaning his bottom. Yet he was also in the Caribbean. I do find it interesting that fstbttms did not regard it as a quality paint also and SF Bay is cool water IMO. Therefore maybe a better way to spend your money.

[Leadfree]

Originally Posted by caradow

Just had it removed from my boat, applied Sea Hawk and very satisfied.

Which Sea Hawk?

[caradow]

This time I used Sea Hawk 44, have used ?77 in the past if my memory serves me.