Keepin It Clean

[champo]

Hi,

Looking for advice on the best tool or process to use to extend the time between antifouling sessions. I'm worried that if I use a hard brush or steel blade of some sort I might remove too much of the existing paint or worse but also need something hard enough to attack the stuff that's taking a liking to my bottom.

Any ideas?

[Sojourner]

Not quite sure what the question is but we have coppercoat (not horribly satisfied with it but hey). We scrape the hull as exercise every week. A very light touch with 6-8 inch wide plastic paint/spackle scrapers works well...

[champo]

Hey Sojourner, thx for the tip. Thanks exactly the info I was looking for.

[fstbttms]

Coppercoat is not an anti fouling paint. It is a copper-loaded epoxy and as such, is extremely tough (and in fact, requires sanding on a regular basis to keep it working (to the degree that it works at all.)) Traditional anti fouling paints should not be cleaned with a scraper as a matter of course, unless the paint's anti fouling properties are expended or the fouling growth is so aggressive that regular cleaning with softer media cannot keep hard growth at bay.

The way to ensure that your anti fouling paint performs as well as possible for as long as possible (regardless of type) is to clean it gently. This means cleaning it relatively frequently, before even moderate fouling is allowed to occur.

[Jerry Woodward]

I have a similar question. I have Petit Hydrocoat, water based ablative antifouling that contains copper. The boat lives in southern FL and is hauled out every summer. It had Hydrocoat on when I bought it in 2017 and looked pretty good. At each haulout (last month was the third) it has had what I would call a light coating of barnacles and surface slime. The bottom was cleaned about every 6 weeks when it was in the water. At each haulout I had the yard pressure wash it. I know, I know, everyone says don't pressure wash ablative paint! But this paint doesn't seem particularly soft and the pressure washing doesn't seem to remove much paint. I added an additional coat with a roller 2 yrs ago without sanding (just a good cleaning) and last year just touched up areas on the leading edges where paint seemed to have worn off. So, my inclination this summer is to do the same, touch up. My question is how does one know when to do a serious sanding and re-painting? If it looks fine, should I just keep doing what I'm doing?

[a64pilot]

You don’t need to redo antifoul until it fails in my opinion, if you can keep getting by with what your doing, great.
You’ll know when it fails, growth goes crazy and your boat will sail like an overweight pig
Now if I were going on a journey, I’d want to leave with a fresh bottom job