Non-Toxic Anti-Fouling

[GordMay]

Non-Toxic Anti-Fouling Strategies for Boats ~ California SeaGrant
http://www-csgc.ucsd.edu/PUBLICATION...gBrochure1.pdf

A free pdf booklet describing effective, nontoxic ways to keep boat bottoms clean. Helps boat owners, businesses, paint companies, government agencies, scientists, and others learn about cost-effective and environmentally friendly antifouling strategies.

[Alan Wheeler]

The advent of Copper-epoxy antifoul has been rather recent. I have heard some very positive comments about this product. The only negative being the initial cost, but the applicators are suggesting 10years before recoat is required. I have only come across one that is now att he 4yr mark and does nothing but wash the slime off every now and then. I would imagine the slime would come off underway anyway. But my questions are,
Does anyone have any longer experiance with the stuff?
Any negatives??
Is this a simple case of mixing copper powder into epoxy???
If so, why can't we do this ourselves????

[XAVIER]

Mr. Alan,
You can read something about at:
http://nauticalfollies.com/interlude.htm
And a very good explanation about how to mix epoxy, copper powder and other aditives:
http://www.epoxyproducts.com/copper4u.html
I never tried it but would like to. I am curious about results and feedback too.

Regards,
Francisco Xavier

[Jentine]

In 1992 when we purchased our last vessel, a 34' Catalina, I applied Copper Clad to the hull. It was touted to repel all manner of sea creature for little more than a light cleaning four times per year. The installation was hard work and time consuming. The installer gave me a choice of having all the work done by a crew or I could supply the crew under his direction and tutelage. I chose the latter based on monetary concerns.
The day started well. The Copper Clad dealer, myself and my brother (poor fool didn't know what he was in for) assembled at the boatyard. The beginning was to sand the barrier coat until it met with the installers standards. I thought my arms would come out of the sockets by the time we successfully sanded the clean, new bottom. Following the sanding came the wash cycle which was done several times using some vile smelling stuff with rubber gloves and eyeprotection.
When the hull was properly prepared, we applied five (5) coats of epoxy barrier coat. Once that had set, we continued with nine (9) coats of copper powder in a vinyl-ester solution. The final coat was with vinyl-esther epoxy (a wash coat) to aid in the curing stage.
The boat was launched several days later and we sailed to our new home. Several weeks later, the installer arrived at the marina with his dive gear and a scrubber with two counter rotating brushes to clean the bottom and burnish the copper. I donned my dive gear and observed the cleaning. The bottom shined like a new copper penny. I was elated.
This procedure did several things (supposedly):
It freed us from bottom paint, was environmentally friendly and saved time and labor. Wrong! The cleaning was necessary four times per year - in the water in June is OK - in the water in January is NOT OK! The time required to clean the bottom became oppressive. After about five years, we painted the bottom. Ablative paint is less effort and cheaper in the long run. The best part is that the hull never had a blister... never....never.
Would I copper clad another bottom? NO, NEVER! Too much work for the return.
I tried every possible method to clean the bottom and the only thing that worked was to don the scuba gear and scrub very hard with a coarse 3M pad.

Jim

[Vasco]

Jim,

So you're one of the fish that fell for this! Saw it in the early nineties in Annapolis, it wasn't cheap. I thought it was wonderful but couldn't afford it. After a few years never heard much about it anymore, so I figured it wasn't that wonderful anyhow. The concept is great, too bad it didn't work.

I will not recommend this as a solution, but I will relate the experience. A 50' wooden schooner I considered rescuing a few years back, had been painted with, believe it or not, septic tank coating, in the early 80's. The boat was finally purchased, defaulted, repurchased, interior fire, and abondoned 2 years ago. The harbor had her hauled and destroyed. I saw the boat hauled, and believe it or not, there was NO rot in the planks, and the pressure wash removed ALL of the growth. The boat had been sitting at the dock, unmoved for over 15 years. The only rot in the hull was in the transom. Still think about the possibilities with that boat, but I am not a schooner kind of guy anyway.
Could it really be that simple?

[Alan Wheeler]

Kai Nui, what do you mean "septic tank coating"? what is this? just a tar based coating??

I have always wondered about this Copper/epoxy idea and if it works or not. It's darn expensive if you get it proffesionally done, so I would sure be miffed if I shelled out all those green foldies and then found the coat was next to useless. The main part I have always wondered about is the copper itself. Like how is it any different to say Brass. I mean, the actuall copper in anti-foul is Copprouse oxide. In otherwords, copper in a very different form. Plus, the copper only deters certain marine growth, mainly shellfish. Plant growth is taken care of by the boicides in the paint and of course, Epoxy/copper doesn't have biocide in it. Nor do I think any of us should try playing arou8nd with that stuff and mixing it in paints.

Unfortunately, I was vague for a reason. That is how the stuff was described to me. It looked like the rubberized coating used on truck beds. It may well be the Coal tar paint that is used on tree truck beds, as that stuff is designed to resist the acidic nature of the vegetation. Not really sure. I do like the idea of epoxy bottom paint. I am seriously considering it for my trimaran.