Bottom Kote is a single-season paint and works differently than ablative paints in that the toxicant leaches away from the paint while with an ablative paint, the toxicant and paint leach away at the same rate. Ablative paints work like a bar of soap, which as the bar gets smaller, the paint still does it's job until gone. When you take a cuprous oxide paint like Bottom Kote out of the water (say for winter storage), even though you may have enough paint on the bottom, there is a chemical change that takes place that renders the paint not as effective. If you leave the boat in the water for extended periods of time, as Joe and shemandr do, the paint works very well - but won't if they were to pull their boat and relaunch after the hull dries. Ablative paints can be pulled for winter storage - or whatever - and as long as their is paint you can expect protection expected based on which ablative paint you use. Folks in very tropical areas tend to use Pettit's Trinadad or Interlux' Ultra as they have the highest toxicant levels and work very well for extended periods of time where the boat remains in the water. There are a lot of reasons for paint failure besides the product itself. Not enough applications might be one. Anything that may contaminate the water where you keep your boat, such as industry, etc., might inhibit protection. Not using the boat doesn't do it any good as while the boat is underway, the action of the water sloughs the paint and toxicant away from the surface making it work. This is just a few examples of things I have learned based on my experience, selling and working with these products (and there are a lot more products to review). Good luck.
