Sea Hawk Smart Solution Bottom Paint

[osirissail]

Sea Hawk "Smart Solution" is their "Econea" (low percentage -2.9%) paint. The Bio-Boost additive is "Zinc" which has great anti-fouling properties but a very short lifespan.

Interlux calls their version - Pacifica Plus with 3.9% Econea and 4.12% Zinc already in the paint.

Pettit made a similar low percentage Econea paint and withdrew it from the market after a period as it did not perform as expected.

Pettit now sells a new version called "Ultima Eco" with 6% Econea and 4.8% Zinc. This new version has about twice the Econea as the other brands. Since it is new, there is no reported history on it yet that I can find.

The Sea Hawk Cukote Biocide Plus and Biocop TF are both copper paints (in the 40% range) with zinc and some algae biocides.

Good old "copper" paints are, IMHO, the current mainstay of the anti-fouling paint world but how long before they will also be "banned" is the question.

Econea (Tralopyril) is the "new kid on the block" in the search for copper-free paints, but the question is how much (%) is needed in a paint and how long will it last in the real world?

[Tortuga's Lie]

I am getting ready to choose a new paint and was thinking that the new Pettit Ultima Eco looked like a good solution to the copper issue. My question is: if this paint does not perform well, can I paint over it with another ablative without having to remove it? I don't think I saw this listed in the literature.

[osirissail]

Everybody has their own "best way" to do a bottom paint job. But you normally download or obtain the "Tech Sheet" for the new paint you are wanting to use and follow the manufacturer's directions to try to get the best results.

One old rule of thumb is that you do not paint "hard" paints (non-ablative) on top of "soft" (ablative) paints. Under that guideline you would sand off the old ablative paint (Ultima Eco is an ablative) before applying a "hard" paint like Pettit Trinidad, etc.

But personally, I (and the tech sheets recommend) always sand down the surface of any bottom paint with 80 grit paper with a random orbital sander to remove any loose or oxidized "old" paint and "dirt" in order to give the "new" paint a surface with some clean "tooth" to grab onto while it dries. How much of the "old" you take off is a matter of what type of "new" paint you are going to put on the boat bottom.

Also how you prepare the surface and then how you mix/stir and apply any type of bottom paint is going to make a world of difference in how long and well the paint will perform as compared to its tech specifications.

With any new technology paint you are "leading the pack" in determining if the paint's technology will prove itself in the real world and in your specific sailing grounds. There are many different types and formulations of bottom paint because there are many different environments in the boating world. What works great in one area may not work very well in a different geographical area.

[tony.keel]

Originally Posted by osirissail

Sea Hawk "Smart Solution" is their "Econea" (low
Pettit now sells a new version called "Ultima Eco" with 6% Econea and 4.8% Zinc. This new version has about twice the Econea as the other brands. Since it is new, there is no reported history on it yet that I can find.

I have just completed a bottom project including 6 coats of epoxy barrier coat and two coats of Ultima Eco. All went well until the final coat of Pettit Ultima Eco failed to cure. It has been 4 days of nice warm weather. The cure time should be about 4 hours.

I have reapplied on a properly prepared test fiberglass panel without the underlying epoxy (the Pettit rep suggested the epoxy was outgassing - which I believe to be nonsense since the first coat of Pettit should have been affected along with the second coat); and this time I made sure to use a 3/16" nap brush (that was stamped in ink on the can lid - seems like an afterthought by Pettit to me). I got the identical results, the 2nd coat failed to cure. Now I have a gooey mess all over my expensive bottom job. The Pettit rep will be up to look at the problem. I am not holding my breath, he sounded like he had his mind made up already on this. We shall see. I think that there is a quality control issue here.

Who knows how the ablative anti-foul will perform. I can't even get the boat in the water to find out.

[Tortuga's Lie]

Tony,
I know what you're going through. After my last post above, I went ahead and painted the Ultima Eco and had a similar result.This is the process I went through:
-Sanded the old paint down to previous barrier coat, washed, washed,washed.
-Re-applied four coats of Interlux 2000/2001 barrier coat.
-Applied one coat of Intelux Bottomcoat as a tie-coat.
-Applied two coats of Ultima Eco exactly following manufacturers guidlines.
-Waited a full week to cure before launching.
What I observed was that the Eco took forever to harden up and even with a week of drying in warm temps, it still did not harden up the way I thought is should ( I could press a fingertip and leave a print). With the boatlift, we used waxed paper and fresh carpet to pad the slings and still had paint pull a bit, but not too terrible.
It has now been 4 months since launch and since it has been extremely hot out, we haven't been using the boat as often as we normally do. The Eco paint does get a layer of very slick soft growth but so far, no hard growth at all. I would suspect that if we were to be using the boat more frequently, the soft growth would slough off, some of which was occuring last weekend after sailing for several hours and I dove under to check the condition. The jury is still out on the long term effect of this paint.
I knew I was a guinnea pig with this paint, but I like the idea behind it.
My previous paints have been both ablatives and hard paint like Trinidad, but Trinidad had gotten so expensive, plus it builds up. I have had good luck with Super Ship Bottom, but you have to mail order this paint.

[lancelot9898]

Tony, I never did have a failure to cure on the bottom paint, but some years ago with a different mfg. I did have bottom paint failure. The bottom was preped properly and a water based paint was applied. After a few hours, the paint was wrinkling up and flaking off. The paint mfg claimed that it was a reaction with the previous oil based paint which seemed logical however I brought in the can which had paint drips down the side and low and behold there was flaking on the can. It took that bit of evidence that there was something wrong with paint and not with the prep.

One other comment is that commercial ships use a paint that doesn't require dry docking as often as small boats do. I would like to use that paint. One mfg told me that commericail shipping puts many miles on their bottoms and as such a recreational boater would not have that much useage. I countered that by saying that just outside our house on the Cheaspeake Bay sits a half dozen commercail ships waiting to enter Baltimore to pick up a coal shipment to China. Some of these boats are sitting at anchor for a couple of months. FWIW