Interlux VC Offshore Regatta
Not the best at keeping stuff from growing, but it's OK and holy crap its hard and fast.
Copper Free Bottom Paint
- Thread starter Ken Cross
- Start date
Not the best at keeping stuff from growing, but it's OK and holy crap its hard and fast.
Do you feel the need to attack everyone with your out of context opinions this morning? Are you saying ALL paints perform as well without Irgarol or just the one product you mention? Are we talking specifically about your customers and what you recommend?
How can anything I wrote be construed as an attack? Unless you consider correcting erroneous statements or providing expert opinion as such.
Scott, there are hard ablative bottom paints, and soft ablative bottom paints and epoxy barrier coat paints are neither.Scott T-Bird said:
How about using a single product and a single environment to say the statements were wrong?
That is sure to confuse the issue. There are hard paints and there are ablative paints. Yes, increasingly there are new varieties of ablatives and some of them display some of the qualities of hard paints. But when we say "hard paint," can we agree that we aren't talking about an ablative?
Yes, I recognize my mistake. I was equating a hard ablative paint with epoxy (barrier) paint. This, from BoatUS, seems to indicate that hard ablative paints can be epoxy-based (leading to my temporary confusion
)."With hard bottom (aka non-sloughing or hard modified epoxy) paints, it's the copper biocide that gradually wears away (rather than the paint itself), allowing the water to penetrate deeper and deeper into the paint until all biocide is depleted. Hard-bottom paints form a tough, hard coating that holds up well and doesn't wear away, making them a good choice for faster boats. They can even be burnished, allowing racers to squeeze every possible bit of speed from their hull. On the downside, when the copper is depleted, the hard, tough coating remains and it can be messy and difficult to remove, particularly if multiple layers of paint have been added over the years. Eventually this accumulated paint reaches critical mass, becoming so thick it begins to crack and peel, necessitating a complete stripping of the hull."
I can attest to the fact that my boat had multiple layers of long-useless hard ablative paint that wasn't a barrier paint. I had to have the old stuff removed before starting fresh with barrier and finishing with soft ablative.
I didn't say you were wrong about paints becoming less effective because of the loss of the Irgarol ingredient. As a professional hull cleaner with 22 years experience, I simply offered my opinion on the subject. Did my opion differ from your statement? Yes. Was it an attack? No.
Jeezus.
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Look, if I intended my reply to your post to be an attack, I wouldn't waste two seconds trying to convince you otherwise. I'm not here to make friends or hold hands. I'm here to provide the benefit of my decades of experience in the hull cleaning business to anybody who is interested. But some people have a problem with being told they're mistaken or hearing an opposing opinion. I have no interest in sugar-coating my "presentation" so that those with delicate sensibilities won't be offended.
Right, the "hard" paints and the "soft" paints differ in that with the "soft" paints, the anti-fouling agent releases through the ablation of the paint itself. The "hard" paints lose the anti-fouling agent via ablation of just the anti-fouling agent via friction with the water, where the paint remains. The "hard" paints may suffer ineffectiveness in that there is far less friction at low speeds. Thus, I assume, that regular burnishing may be necessary to release anti-fouling agent because water friction isn't normally sufficient at the low speeds of sail boats.
If by "burnishing" you mean in-water sanding, know that that is an environmentally unfriendly and illegal practice, regardless of what anti fouling paint is being used. Further, any ablative paint being marketed to the recreational boating public is going to be effective at relatively low speeds and should not require it.
Up here in the PNW our water is probably a little cooler (56 degrees). I currently have an ablative paint in its third year. What type of prep work should I do and bottom paint should I use?
Head.
If not having your hull cleaned is not an issue for you, my philosophy is- If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you feel the need to go to a hard paint then I still recommend Pettit Trinidad, with or without Irgarol.
The only other paint I ever recommend is Interlux Micron 66, a "hybrid" ablative. Both of these paints have excellent anti fouling properties. Being in the PNW, you may feel that you don't need that much horsepower to keep your bottom clean. If that's the case, I'm the wrong man to advise you.
Regarding prep work, others here will be better able to guide you on that.
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jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,877
Ken. I thought you had a fast boat.
I have the number of a local diver. Check your PM.
Burnishing of hard ablatives can be done out of the water. Petit is also self-polishing as it sloughs off to expose fresh toxicant. I would suspect that this paint would also be banned in WA since it has copper.
You still never answered my question but never mind. I'm not sensitive to this, I don't need sugar-coating. . If you don't get the point I was making maybe someone else will.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,877
Ken. I thought you had a fast boat.
I have the number of a local diver. Check your PM.