Why use bottom paint when you can scrape?

[Jim Cate]

^^^^
Possibly because here in Oz most workboats are alloy hulled. With no specific knowledge one might guess that the thin metal hulls transmit the ultrasonic vibrations better than typical FRP do.

And for sure, since fouling organisms vary from place to place, the location does matter.

And for At Peace and other folks whining about Fastbottoms posts... I find them useful and often educational. He may be a bit terse at times, but is a fount of experienced knowledge on things related to fouling and anti-fouling.

Jim

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

And for (those) whining about Fastbottoms posts... I find them useful and often educational. He may be a bit terse at times, but is a fount of experienced knowledge on things related to fouling and anti-fouling.

Thank you. I appreciate the kind words. The hairy-backed marys that are offended by my direct approach and block me are only depriving themselves of whatever expertise I may be able to impart. I find it amusing, personally.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

This doesn’t add up. A boat is a boat. Doesn’t matter what its intended purpose is. Ultrasonic doesn’t work merely because it’s been installed on a “workboat.” Either it retards fouling or it doesn’t.

Maybe you need upgrade your maths skills to bean counter status. The ultrasonic system I referred to did retard fouling to a degree to which customer base was happy with. The customers continued to install the systems and the supplier stayed in business.

It is safe to speculate the decisions to use or not use the product is dollar based. As I said, I don't the detail of the why when how the system worked and I reckon the bean counters operating the workboats don't know either. They do know about costs and profits though and they vote with their purchase order books.

Try thinking outside of your diving mask - when walking, shoes protect feet. Some shoes in some situations protect feet better than others. Try convincing a welder to buy ballet pumps. Try convincing a ballroom dancer to buy gumboots.

If I needed to know what is the best antifouling method for my sailboat in your harbour, I would ask you. You have been in business for a long time, it is safe to speculate you know what works best there.

If I see another successful business offering another antifouling product in another harbour for other types of boats operating under different conditions, I would speculate they knows what works best there.

I suppose it is possible you know better, if so there are some great business opportunities for you down under. C'mon down and make a killing.

[fstbttms]

Perhaps you'd be so good as to reveal the name of this company that will only sell ultrasonic anti fouling systems to the owners of certain boats in certain locations in Australia.

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

^^^^
Possibly because here in Oz most workboats are alloy hulled. With no specific knowledge one might guess that the thin metal hulls transmit the ultrasonic vibrations better than typical FRP do.

And for sure, since fouling organisms vary from place to place, the location does matter.

And for At Peace and other folks whining about Fastbottoms posts... I find them useful and often educational. He may be a bit terse at times, but is a fount of experienced knowledge on things related to fouling and anti-fouling.

Jim

Ok so there’s a thought
Maybe the hull is thin aluminum and the ultrasound vibrates the hull and doesn’t allow the marine organisms the ability to readily attach

Hmm something I hadn’t considered

So kind of like those folks with 2 kilowatts of base amps in the trunk vibrating the cars body panels

[Star Fire]

How much is your time worth? It’s finite in supply and you alcantarilla buy more of it. Use an ablative paint and save yourself a bunch of trouble swimming in this cold ass water! The Chesapeake water is pretty nasty anyway and, when Baltimore floods, their water treatment plant overflows and runs raw sewage right into the bay. Copper is a naturally occurring element. The only reason they don’t mine it underwater is because it’s too costly. If the price of copper was high enough, they most certainly would! Why do you think Maryland blue crab is blue! It’s copper.

Ok, I just made up the part about the blue crab, but I bet I’m not far off.

[RaymondR]

On careening. Make sure the rock you tie the shore side line from the lower spreader to is sufficiently large and well buried (lucky it was steel):

I built a couple of those ultrasonic antifoul gadgets from kits. I think they helped but I still had to regularly scrape the hull.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Star Fire

Copper is a naturally occurring element.

So is arsenic. So is mercury, etc., etc. That doesn't mean that too much of any of these elements (incuding copper) in one place (like a marina, for instance) isn't a bad thing. It is.

[MicHughV]

Every time I've ever hauled my boat, I end up scraping it as well as painting it.

[Star Fire]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

So is arsenic. So is mercury, etc., etc. That doesn't mean that too much of any of these elements (incuding copper) in one place (like a marina, for instance) isn't a bad thing. It is.

I don’t know that copper is toxic. Water pipes in houses were all copper up until just recently. Pex pipes are used now because copper is too expensive. Pex is arguably far more toxic than copper.

[RaymondR]

My understanding is that it's not the elemental copper which has the nasties but that it's compounding with other elements to form chemical compounds which creates the nasties.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Star Fire

I don’t know that copper is toxic.

Anything is toxic in great enough quantity. In any case, we're not talking about toxicity to humans. We're talking about what it does to the animals in the affected areas.

[Josephcrawl]

Hey it has been a bit and I thought people would like to get some bottom paint or lack of updates.

Year before last we hauled the boat to fix this and that and while out we were gifted some alblative bottom paint so we figured might as well slap it on there. We left a couple of stripes unpainted for the sake of experimentation. We sailed the boat in and out down the coast and stored it till the following spring in the Indian river area of central Florida.

Upon returning the next year the bottom was pretty fouled with barnies and the usual slime and algae The stripe of unpainted was identical to the painted. We commenced to scraping the bottom clean. The brine shrimp were awful but the scraping wasn't. There was no discernable difference in the scraping of the painted or unpainted sections.

The prop was so fouled the boat would move even though we applied that $70 can of prop paint. It too was easy to scape clean.

Long story short we won't be painting again. I just don't see the benefit. In my golden years I may change my mind but for now the cleaning ain't so bad.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Anything is toxic in great enough quantity. In any case, we're not talking about toxicity to humans. We're talking about what it does to the animals in the affected areas.

Some folks do miss the obvious.


Chocolate is toxic to dogs, not so much to humans. Zinc is another leading anti-fouling ingredient. Humans take zinc pills.


Interesting that WA stayed their move to copper free, deciding it was safer to stay with the devil they know. Toxicity in the environment is complicated.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Interesting that WA stayed their move to copper free, deciding it was safer to stay with the devil they know. Toxicity in the environment is complicated.

Washington put the brakes on their copper ban because new science indicates that the level of copper loading seen in boat basins and marinas isn't nearly as harmful as initially believed. They're simply waiting to see if that proves out.