Anyone with experience using "hull shield" ultrasonic antifouling system?

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Lets just correct that statement shall we? Whilst there are areas with low fouling, sadly in Southern UK its a real battle.

What is a typical cleaning frequency in your area?

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

What is a typical cleaning frequency in your area?

Antifoul in the spring then pressure wash a couple of times during the summer to get the worst off, perhaps last wash in October and then give up. Thankfully 5m tides work well with drying grids and slipways to enable yachts to dry out for a tide to do the work, but its a long day with an early start or late night to float back off again.

EU paint regulations don't help, might as well use emulsion paint

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Antifoul in the spring then pressure wash a couple of times during the summer to get the worst off, perhaps last wash in October and then give up. Thankfully 5m tides work well with drying grids and slipways to enable yachts to dry out for a tide to do the work, but its a long day with an early start or late night to float back off again.

EU paint regulations don't help, might as well use emulsion paint

Well, I don't know that I would consider conditions like that to be anything more than moderate. In southern California, you clean your hull 15 times a year typically. Florida, even more often than that.

[Pete7]

Yes but a quick wipe with a sponge or plastic scraper won't do anything useful, it needs a big pressure washer. If anyone could bottle it, then there is a fortune to be made. Super Glue, Pah

[Pete7]

I even had the Internationals Paint visit one year and gave him both barrels. His solution, he gave me another tin of the same paint that had failed in 6 weeks At £100 a tin for 2.5L its kind of an expensive science project failure.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Well, I don't know that I would consider conditions like that to be anything more than moderate. In southern California, you clean your hull 15 times a year typically. Florida, even more often than that.

I'm in Ensenada, 200 miles south of LA (sort of the center of SoCal). Bottom diver tells me monthly. In San Francisco, I was used to 4-5 times per year so 12x/year seemed like a lot (certainly 15x, though that is common in my neck of Florida). So I asked the yard manager who has become a friend and is also a lifelong sailor here in Ensenada. He chuckled at thought of monthly and said I'd need new paint in a year if I did that. He said wait a few months on my new paint, then every 2-3 months thereafter. Should last a good 2-years.

Funny how the recommendation from a bottom diver is more diving is needed.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

I'm in Ensenada, 200 miles south of LA (sort of the center of SoCal). Bottom diver tells me monthly. In San Francisco, I was used to 4-5 times per year so 12x/year seemed like a lot (certainly 15x, though that is common in my neck of Florida). So I asked the yard manager who has become a friend and is also a lifelong sailor here in Ensenada. He chuckled at thought of monthly and said I'd need new paint in a year if I did that. He said wait a few months on my new paint, then every 2-3 months thereafter. Should last a good 2-years.

Funny how the recommendation from a bottom diver is more diving is needed.

I don't clean boats in SoCal. I'm just telling you what they do. Every 3 weeks in the summer, every 4 weeks in the winter (at least in San Diego.) Paint jobs last 3+ years. And anybody who tells you different is flat out wrong.

"He chuckled at thought of monthly and said I'd need new paint in a year if I did that."

Those are the words of somebody who has never cleaned a boat bottom.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

I don't clean boats in SoCal. I'm just telling you what they do. Every 3 weeks in the summer, every 4 weeks in the winter (at least in San Diego.) Paint jobs last 3+ years. And anybody who tells you different is flat out wrong.

I'll tell my friends in Chula Vista who get their boats cleaned 4x-5x per year that a bottom diver in San Francisco says they are wrong and they need to do it 15x per year.

BTW- when I was in SF (Treasure Island), my diver was a retired navy seal. 4x per year. He didn't talk much about his diving experience which included underwater munitions. Just cleaned hulls for pin money and hang out at the old Naval Base. Wonder what he'd think if I told him he was leaving money on the table by not diving a boat every 4 weeks?

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Wonder what he'd think if I told him he was leaving money on the table by not diving a boat every 4 weeks?

You might start by looking at my website and educating yourself about what kind of cleaning frequency I actually do recommend, instead of again inventing something that I never said:

FastBottoms Hull Diving Cleaning Frequency Recommendation Page

[JPA Cate]

We have some friends who trialled one of the ultrasonic anti-foulers, and reported that it was effective against barnacles, but not other forms of fouling; this was on a sail from St. Helens to Europe. Steel hull, one of the Jotun paints.

Obviously, this was not a scientific study, and is only an n of 1.

Yes, they've been around for years, and maybe they do work for some critters in some situations, but it's hard to filter out the noise.

Coppercoat is similar in this respect. One friend used it on his boat in Perth and here in Tasmania, where there is a lot of fouling due to degradation of the water by fish farms, with success. Other friends have been very unhappy with it.

Until there is good science work done, my guess is that we are enduring a long developmental phase, where most people have been convinced by previous failures, and truly believe the whole concept is invalid, when that is what their experience is.
We should not denigrate such experience. There is no reason to assume that it is self interest rather than experience speaking. Most of us are familiar with what happens with the bottom paint only on our own boats. Divers who do more bottoms than just their own would be aware what works better in their areas, cause they ask everybody what paint they are using and everybody asks them what to use.

At a time in history when toxic bottom paint is out of favor, everyone would like the ultrasonic devices to work well for sailboats, but so far as I know, no real evidence for that has appeared. But if it did, then more people would take it up as their own experiment, and soon, many more would.

**********

PLEASE express your ideas without posting sarcastic or demeaning content.

[Lee Jerry]

Here's another test:
https://www.researchgate.net/publica...c_guided_waves

From the conclusion section: "Comparing all the monitoring photographs of the control and test plates, it could be confidently inferred that the ultrasonic antifouling system has notable performance in antifouling and control of fouling growth using significantly low ultrasonic power levels."


It's possible that it (ultrasonic antifouling) is effective (or "more" effective) on metal than on fiberglass...

[CarlF]

I have recently switched from Micron 66 to SeaHawk Biocop. I may be in brackish water soon so 66 is a non starter. I was going to go to Micron Extra until the Interlux rep at a boat show told me that Interlux bought Sea Hawk last year.

I had been uncomfortable dealing with SeaHawk after their president was jailed by the US for illegally selling tin paints. But with Interlux now in control I’ve heard so many good things from cruisers about BioCop that I decided to give it a try.

The primary benefit mentioned by cruisers is that it is slightly harder than Micron so less prone to being rubbed off. It’s only been six months but performance so far in Florida and the Bahamas is at least as good as Micron 66 and if I rub my hand over the bottom, I don’t see swirls of black in the water.

[CarlF]

I agree that it’s very suspicious that after all these years you don’t bump into cruisers at the marina who want to tell you how great their ultrasonic system is.They certainly want to bend my ear about their anti fouling paint or hull wax.

But I was told that at least one brand was updated because they found that using only a single frequency was not very effective. Their new unit now supposedly emits several frequencies.

I have trouble believing this is the magic bullet. But if so, we should know in a few years.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by CarlF

I have recently switched from Micron 66 to SeaHawk Biocop. I may be in brackish water soon so 66 is a non starter.

Micron 66 has been discontinued, so you were going to switch to something else eventually anyway

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by CarlF

I have trouble believing this is the magic bullet. But if so, we should know in a few years.

Why will we know in a few years? It's already been at least 20 years. How many years do these systems have to be used in the real world before we know?