Coppercoat after 6 months away

[Tupaia]

Coppercoat should be labelled as exercise. Works great for a couple of years in temperate climes then becomes a nightmare and is totally useless in the tropics. When it starts to erode as it does after many years it comes off in places but not others. The only way to eradicate it was to wet sand ahhh...

I now know of more boats who have anti-fouled over it than think it is any good.

Before anyone asks it was professionally applied over striped epoxy hulls.
We have had good experience with Alltex (Australia 2.5 years) and Pacifica Plus (Caribbean 2 years). Both of these required no scrubbing at all.

[coconutmilk]

Originally Posted by madurama

I'm curious now if ultrasonic antifouling systems works for you.

Ultrasonic in combination with Coppercoat didnt`t really do the job in our case (Caribbean Islands). We had to scrub the bottom quite often.

[Brian Renwick]

Did you consider leaving the growth alone, and running dive attraction tours?
Perhaps David Attenborough could do a doco?

[Shaneesprit]

Thanks for letting me know I can re activate my copper coat - I had my boat a few years now and have the first signs of some soft growth on one side.
I have never touched below the waterline before, I had assumed that it wasn’t applied properly in that area.
Only been on the boat twice over the season - due to Covid restrictions

[donradcliffe]

Coming from a racing background, a foul bottom is anathema to me.

I bought a boat which had used Trinidad for 9 years. It had patches flaking off. I stripped it back to a bare hull, (which did not to the envir0nment any good) and put on more barrier coat. I put on 2.5 coats of Trinidad, which kept things clean for 6 months, followed by frequent scrubbings of soft growth. The next year in Venezuela I put on 2 more coats of Trinidad, which had hard growth within 2 months. I put up with frequent scrapings until I got to Australia. There I discovered that the boats in the marina with clean bottom used the ablative ABC 3.

I was very happy with the results, and switched to ablative paints with an annual recoat. Every time I hauled the pressure washer took off all the growth, and there was very little paint buildup. Prep for painting consisted of a light scuffing with 80 grit which took less than a hour. I did find that if I did an ocean passage of several thousand miles it ablated most of the paint, and I had to scrub more the rest of the year.

I did try a TBT based paint in Asia, it WAS being used on larger vessels and WAS legal in that region. I found that it did not perform any better than copper based ablative paints, so went back to copper and annual haulouts.

I did encounter several boats in SE Asia with serious growth problems on Coppercoat that was 3-4 years old. They all switched back to regular bottom paint.

[Mark Johnson]

Originally Posted by LifePart2

Five years ago, in Portugal, we had coppercoat applied to our bottoms.

For the first year it looked like it was doing a reasonable job. But after that first year it became increasingly unimpressive. Indeed for the last three years we would have to scrape the bottom every few weeks to remove the growth, which was mostly a very tenacious green weed that would grow to several inches long. To get it properly off took vigorous scrubbing with a scotchbrite. Not easy underwater.

A year ago we had it on the hard and did another thorough rub down to 'reactivate it' as our last ditch effort to make it work. It looks the right color. It is nice and smooth. But it does not impede growth.

Last Christmas LIfe Part 2 was in Simpson Lagoon, St Martin for 2 months. When we got back the growth slowed us down by a full 2 knots.

This time we left her on a mooring in Grenada for 6 months (since March) and came back to a full ecosystem:

We have green weeds, colorful sponges, tube worms, shrimps (including a banded coral shrimp - never seen one before), crabs, a tiny 2-inch lobster, the tiny shrimp/krill/whatever that get in your hair, ears and everywhere esle, lots of different small fish, including some that are living in the water intakes for my toilets - they then get sucked up and smashed up in the intake strainer, thus blocking it. A few barnacles too, but not a huge number.

Fortunately it all scrapes off pretty easily, like a 1970's shag carpet. and then swe rubbed it all down with scotchbrites.

So on our next haulout we are going back to bottom paint. Maybe Island 44 hard?

Yes, these pictures are our boat bottom. The last one is the before and after scraping.

Attachment 225698

Attachment 225699

Attachment 225700

Attachment 225701

Attachment 225702

As a one off multihull owner for decades, going back to the 70s, haul outs were VERY hard to arrange, and expensive.

The incentive to find a better solution, for myself and my peers, all of whom built their own boats... was strong.

There were about a half dozen copper infused epoxy resin products marketed, and between me and my friends, we tried them all.

Mine was "CopperPoxy" which being copper flakes vs a powder, it conducted electricity, making my boat a battery. It was a DISASTER. Painting over it failed! Twice...

I painstakingly removed it 100%, near all underwater metal, and barrier coated the epoxy hull, then switched to using bottom paint, for decades now... success.

Other brands that friends had used (unsuccessfully) would allow the copper crapsky to be painted over, and it would stick. No one stayed with the copper coat stuff...

The concept is flawed. Copper in epoxy has no effect, sealed away from the water. The surface copper oxidizes quickly, becoming useless. Wet Sanding it in the water is impossible, I tried.

DO NOT BE FOOLED BY ANY OF THESE COPPER INFUSED EPOXY RESIN PRODUCTS.

They do not work.

[DIJ]

There has been copper in epoxy ( brand Coppercote) on my hull for 10 years - I acquired the boat 5 years ago and have had very little growth (the odd barnacle) in that time. The only problem has been a few small patches recently where the coating has come away near my bow thruster. I have reapplied alternatively sourced copper coat but it doesn’t last. But I think that even if it doesn’t last much longer it has been money well spent avoiding the annual wet application.

[reiner]

We are in Sub tropical waters in Australia and been using Altex 5 which is a ablative bottom paint for over 10 years now. We haul out every 12 month and find it work pretty good. The pressure cleaner is all thats needed to clean the hull. We also use Prop speed every 2 years and that works too. I think you need to find out what works best in your local waters .

[Amaleo]

My understanding is that Coppercoat has to be lightly sanded after the “final” coat in order to expose the copper particles that are suspended and encapsulated in the epoxy. After awhile in the water those exposed particles degrade like un-tinned copper wiring. This necessitates another “sanding” to expose un-oxidized copper. I doubt that Scotch Pads would do as good a job as wet sanding. Certainly a pressure wash would not remove the epoxy base of Coppercoat as it would an ablative which would literally go down the drain. An aside: Tampa Bay is virulent. A few months there in the heat of the summer allowed not only barnacle growth, but oyster and other opportunistic hard shellfish to take hold. Whereas, anchored off of Palencia, Belize for a few months waiting for Guatemala to open up to cruisers stranded be the COVID-19 pandemic mostly only resulted with soft growth. It is interesting that un-painted sacrificial aluminum and zinc anodes as well as speedometer and depth sounder surfaces were also infested. The bottom line is the cost effectiveness over time of Coppercoat vs. an ablative bottom paint.

[Muaddib1116]

Originally Posted by Garbonz

WE ARE ALL POURING PERMANENT TOXINS into the environment. it's just a matter of degree.

Yeah, so it's probably a good thing to reduce your impact when it's easy.

Originally Posted by Garbonz

AND no I don't get the analogy, but people with small minds seem to like to throw it out for shock value.

I'm not sure saying that you don't get it, but only stupid people say the thing that you don't get, is the tactic you want to use.

[Richbayle]

You're in the Caribbean. Haul out, clean an repaint every two years like the rest of us

[blazing928]

Coppercoat should be burnished with the soft brown scotchbrite like pad. You only need to remove the epoxy, not the copper. The pad is soft enough to abrade the lower part of a dimple too. No need for a flat ‘mirror’ finish.
The pad are branded Mirlon, Mirka VF 360 as supplied by the Oz distributor. But the finish must be matt all over.

I agree with others that say it’s not the best antifoul, but I don’t like the idea of ablative in my marina, MT Martha marina up the coast has banned scrubbing of ablative in the marina.

The last clean, the diver said it was an effort, this was after probably 4 months of sitting, something we have never done before. Normally it is an easy wipe, where yearly anti fouled boats don’t need a clean.

Long term, even with a few dives a year it’s cheaper and in my opinion better as it doesn’t shed paint into the water.

The new magicantifoul brand looks interesting

[rotgut]

IVERMECTIN
I have been trying Ivermectin in my anti-foul, with good results. Ivermectin is an anti-worming drug that is used on humans and animals but is highly toxic to barnacles. It is one of the key ingredients in the European Union's LEAF project (Low Emission Anti-foul see LEAF-AntiFouling | FP7 Project "Low Emission AntiFouling" ).


Effectiveness:
After 1 year on the mooring here in Phuket I can clearly see the hull areas that were painted without Ivermectin because these areas have barnacles. When I launched after painting, the hull areas where the stands had been were painted with standard antifoul: International Interswift 6800HS.


The hull areas with Ivermectin get a thin layer of brown/green slime on them, but no further growth. There are pin-head sized white spots which I believe are the barnacles that have died very early in their life cycle, and are easily brushed or wiped off with a brush.



Relative Toxicity:
Ivermectin works by remaining insoluble in the paint. The standard dose is 0.1% - which equates to 10g (roughly 1-2 teaspoons) per 5 litre paint can (10 kg). The toxin remains in the paint fragments which eventually fall into the mud under the boat, but they are extremely small.


Compared to the copper in the same paint, I am "losing" about 10 kg of copper per year off the boat to the ocean, versus about 10 g of Ivermectin.



Ivermectin mainly affects worms and is not overly toxic to fish as it is also used to deworm aquarium fish.


I will continue using this additive. It may be possible to push the standard haul-out beyond a year or two, however, I also need to change anodes and check the through-hulls and keel, so a year or two between haul outs is probably reasonable.

[CATJAVA]

Our experience w/CC on 48ft Crowther cat for 6 years in the tropics. First, point is that growth in warm water is much faster than in cold water. We get soft growth but not much hard barnacles. Since CC is so hard we clean w/ metal scrapers & steel wool every 1-2 months. Easy to clean. We usually beach the cat every 2-3 years to give it an orbital sanding with 150# sandpaper to expose more copper.. I don’t think you’ll get it any better. If all you’re getting is SOFT growth you are still far ahead of most other bottom paints I’ve seen!
Evan on JAVA in the Philippines

[timb7734]

I have used Coppercoat for twelve years on two boats. I have found that the water your boat sits in as well as the use of the boat are big factors, yet I never considered that paint alone would prevent all growth. I had at least ten thin coats applied and it lasted ten years on a trawler with only touch up and patching of spots where I grounded or where the bottom was repaired for other reasons. In warm fertile water I dived on the hull monthly. I liked it so much I applied it to my current boat as well. I suspect the lack of performance comes from unreal expectations and not enough attention to application of the product including constant stirring.