Copper epoxy antifoul - anybody used it?

[Jaguar steve]

Seems like a no brainer to me - if what the manufacturers claim is to be believed. Up to 10 years fouling protection with nothing more than a pressure wash and light abarade each season to expose fresh copper. Hull prepartion is not a problem - I have access to a grit blaster to get all the old antifoul off and the applicitaion process is relatively easy, and if you consider the claimed savings in haul out costs and annual antifouling with conventional antifoul it makes economic sense too.

Alll these supposed advantages yet I don't know of anybody who has actually used it in a high fouling area like the Thames estuary. Anybody got any experience with it or links to more info?

Over to you Chaps

[markh1]

I saw this stuff at the boat show at excel. I would also be very interested to know if it works! Every year I get roped into helping with parents moody 419!

[maser_spyder]

I'm interested in this, but the strip back to original gel coat isn't appealing!

Nightmare job? Anybody done it before?

Might be worth a look on the yachty forums, I'm sure somebody out there has some experience of it.

[tank slapper]

We went back to the gelcoat a few years ago, and used a chemical product to remove the anti-fouling. I can't recall the name of it off hand, but I can find out. It was a bit messy but the main problem being the ambient temperature was below that recommended for it to work well, so it took longer than normal.

As for coppercoating, I have seen two boats with it on and both came out with weed and barnacles at the end of the season, so I'm not sure it's any better than normal antifouling paint. I suspect the preparation is fairly important for that stuff as I have read quite a lot of positive reviews of it, but I think it depends on the area as to how well it works.

In the Blackwater, we were using Jotun Sea-Guardian which was very good (and of course now legislated out of existence) and this year using Jotun Seaforce 30 (or might be Sea Queen), which so far is doing well.

Edited by tank slapper on Friday 28th May 18:25

[ALawson]

We installed Coppercoat about 4 years ago, at the time I had to manually scrape 9 years or normal blakes of the bottom with a 2 inch scrapper, it took me about 8 days.

Following that we had to prime the metal keel and abrade the gelcoat with an orbital sander this took another 2 days.

On the day of painting I had 3 helpers and it took us all day.

For the first 3 years performance has been good, 38ft Westerly Oceanranger it gets used between May-October 12-14 weekends per year, while based at Ocean Village Southampton - Tidal Mooring.

We normally would take it to Sealift in Cowes lift, jetwash of with a check of the anodes and that would be enough for the year.

Last year we moved to the boat to Port Solent, Portsmouth, a lock controlled marina. We has the boat jet washed off as per normal at Sealift. Over last summer the growth on the bottom was excessive.

I went to see CC at the LBS who gave me a couple of scourers and today am going down and we are off to Cowes this afternoon and going to Sealift tomorrow. CC reckon a lift, scrub and then abrading with the scourers should sort it out as we have never scourered it before.

I have spoke to the yard manager at Port Solent who says there are 25-30 other boats there using CC and they are not fouled any more than other boats at the marina.

Incidently normal growth on CC is a slight layer of slime which comes of very easily. Assuming that the scouring today sorts the problem out then I would have a problem recommending it, to date it has worked.

You must apply it at the right temp and humidity and leave enought time between the 4 coats.

I helped put CC on a Oyster 55 in Gib in 1999, the proffesional skipper of that boat swore by it.

Here are some photos on another site.

http://www.westerly-owners.co.uk/woaforum/viewtopi...

[Fishtigua]

We have had quite a few boats hauled-out at the yard using Copper Coat. The fouling falls off with a pressurewash very easily but the growth builds up quite a lot if the boat is not used regularly. It also tends to eat anodes at a rate of knots for some reason. Should be great for a cruising boat on the go all the time.

One owner took his nearly new boat over to France and left it up river for the winter. He did not change the anodes for Ally or Magnesium ones. With the Copper Coat and lack of working anodes the Saildrive casing dissolved and cost him over £3 grand to fix.

[ALawson]

We just got back from Cowes, the chap running the Sealift reckons its the worst fouling on CopperCoat he has ever seen. I will post some photos later, lots of barnacles but they came of very easily.

You may be right about lack of use leading to lots of growth, last summer was quite busy with getting married and a few others things.

I am now going to monitor the growth as the boats speed was back up to scratch this afternoon.

[markh1]

So by the sounds of it this is not the right product if the boat over winters in a marina or a swinging/fixed mooring?

[ALawson]

For the record in a tidal marina I have never had a problem, Port Solent is locked.

I imagine on a swinging mooring that there would be enought flow.