Quote:
Originally Posted by fstbttms
Bear in mind that anti fouling techniques that work for a cruising boat may not translate well to a boat that lives in a slip or on a mooring. And I know of no anti fouling paint available in the U.S. who's manufacturer recommends applying their products as heavily as you do or claims a lifespan for their paints that you claim you get from yours (aside from Micron 66, from which you got about as much use as anybody ever does.)
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Hello Fstbttms, No we don't live on a slip or
mooring, but we do spend 6 months on a
dock for
winter. Our
water temp goes from about 12 deg C to 28 odd when in the tropics. Sometimes we make lots of miles, sometimes we stay put if we like it. I am not surprised that the manufacturers in the
USA do not recommend applying the product as heavily, they will sell more paint if you put on 2 coats every year, and the yards do well too. See, we don't like to haul, Gilana is
steel and heavy and draws 8'6" so we are a bit limited there. We also really worry about haulout as we don't believe in
insurance, the second biggest scam in
history. SO....We decided to try the many coats
route once, and it was a success. So now that is what we do, our anodes can be changed by
diving, we do not have thru-hulls so no
maintenance there. I thought that some members might benefit from a bit of lateral thinking, and escape the hold of the paint manufacturers driving our
consumption of their products. We might be a bit maverick, thinking up our own solutions, but we are results driven. All of our haulouts, by the way, have been meticulously recorded on our web page. (except the last one because our dog died that week and we did not feel like taking photos)
The EU anti fouling paint
regulations are much tighter than some other countries, and it goes further, in that toxic paint is not allowed even to be manufactured there for export to 3rd world countries. I know for a fact that some of the real "good" stuff containing "bad" things that you can get in 3rd world countries is manufactured in the
USA, but not
for sale there. (At least until Katrina flattened the factory) We do not use Tin or Copper based paint because we love the sea, and our boat is zinc coated
steel and the copper would just suck that right off...
On another note, I am really keen to hear if anyone has tried Sigmaglide anti fouling. Completely non toxic, and 15 year limited guarantee.
Its a 2 x 2 part system, teflon and silicone apparently....gives your boat big titties and a slippery bottom. (google it)
We therefore paid for our last haulout 1000 euros of paint, 1005 euros for the in out and hard, divided by 6 years comes to 334 Euros a year, all inclusive. I hope this answer helps the person who asked....