Copper sheet for the dinghy

[David B]

Originally Posted by hd002e

I have a small homemade plywood dinghy that I sometimes leave in the water. It is not too big of a problem in the summertime as I dive in the water and clean the bottom regularly but in the winter it gets covered in hard growth within a weeks time. The area that gets covered is fairly small, perhaps 3 square feet. I am considering getting thin copper sheets, cutting them to the exact shape of the effected area and gluing them to the bottom with polyurethane. Would copper keep barnacles away?

Why not just buy a litre of Coppercoat and do it that way?
Marine Antifoul | Coppercoat Coppercoat

[Visarend]

Sure some antifoul paints can be kept dry for long periods. International VC17 Extra, for instance: dries and can go in water in less than 30 mins, can be kept out of water up to 12 months. Very smooth and slippery, when first dried is copper colored, after some time in water the color is graphite. On my 36' cutter lasts more than one year, after cleaning and rinsing can be overcoated. Use it since 15 years. VC 17m Extra Antifouling Boat Paint | International

[maxpics]

Hi there,

i have just treated my Nauticat38 with Coppercoat and it works perfectly, even here in the laggon near Venice, Italy where growth is very strong. But it is actually not the copper itself that keeps the barnacles away but it is the copperoxide that is actually poison for all organisms. So you need 100% pure and untreated copper that can and should oxidise well until green. It does that with air or in seawater. You can speed that process up with some mild acid. When it is completely green no barnacles or whatsoever will survive hanging on to that. Or just buy a liter of Coopercoat and apply it. Not cheap but propably the same as buying sheets of copper and some. sikkaflex.

[arcticmonkey]

copper seemed to well for the royal navy... but a cheaper solution may be old house paint... cheap, available sloughs off just like bottom paint

[OldBawley]

Our dinghy ( a modified Barrow sailor ) stays all year round in the water. I like the dinghy to be ready at any time.
About every month I clean the bottom. When I think of it I apply a coat of udder cream.
It is a cream used by farmers to treat the udders of cows and it contains anti ???? stuff.
In the Netherlands many people use the stuff to protect propellers and so on. It works.


Not that our dinghy now has a healthy udder hanging in the water but no growth.

[Nicholson58]

A lot of this depends on where the dink is. In our cruising grounds, Caribbean, stuff grows quickly. There are some very effective paints but they are ablative so a mess to touch. As I previously noted, 3- point harness and spinnaker halyard or davits. Launching is less than a minute. You can lock at night. You don’t listen to the thing squeak on the hull all night. Nothing grows on it ever. This includes the outboard. The outboard is saved from excessive corrosion and salt exposure too.

In the harbors at Marin, Martinique grass grows in 3 days, barnacles and hard stuff shows after a week. Cleaning requires upside down on the deck with straight Clorox fo about 2 hours. Lifting out takes less than 5 minutes and it’s easy. Marin is where I built the harness. Trinidad that off-season is where we added the davits.

We started in Lake Michigan. Even there, we grew grass.

[Cracassis]

Originally Posted by hd002e

I have a small homemade plywood dinghy that I sometimes leave in the water. It is not too big of a problem in the summertime as I dive in the water and clean the bottom regularly but in the winter it gets covered in hard growth within a weeks time. The area that gets covered is fairly small, perhaps 3 square feet. I am considering getting thin copper sheets, cutting them to the exact shape of the effected area and gluing them to the bottom with polyurethane. Would copper keep barnacles away?

on my catamaran I use epoxy and copper metallic mesh 320+

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by Cracassis

on my catamaran I use epoxy and copper metallic mesh 320+

How does that work, how much did it cost, and how long does it last?