Bottom Paint Observations

[Mike G.]

Since the boat yard pressure washes the bottom at haul out, I don't normally see what kind of growth has accumulated during the season.

The haul out due to hurricane Irene allowed me to observe results of two different paints that I had applied. -- I used some left over Blue Seas Copper Shield on the forward section . Midships and aft were painted with Petit Hydrocoat.

It was a bit foggy when these photos were taken on Saturday, but one can clearly observe the difference:

Other than slime, the forward section is extremely clean compared to the rest of the bottom. Also note the photo of the rudder - Just prior to launch, I noticed a thin area of paint on the rudder and brushed a small section with the Blue Seas. The rudder photo shows more detail. Again, no growth on that small section

Looks like my decision for next year's paint has been made.

Mike

 

[Marc14857]

Mike

I had the same opportunity up the river in Mystic. I am pretty disappointed with the perfprmance of hydrocoat. I really liked how easy it was to apply and clean up with water but it was not very effective. I have what I would call a thin blanket of marine growth on the entire underside of the hull. Maybe hydrocoat just isn't as effective in our particular location. Too Bad.

 

[tommays]

My observation as someone who races on a boats with weekly cleaning and cleans there own bottom every two weeks NOTHING really does well against the barnacle blooms feed by the storm water runoff in Northport

 

[Rich Stidger]

This is a very timely post!

I hauled out for Irene and for the last two years I have used Pettit Hydrocoat. Like Mike G. I never saw the boat when normally hauled for the season, but boats weren't washed for the Irene haul.

Our boat and a friend's boat both looked about the same- lots of blooms but very few actual barnacles. I was wondering if the Hydrocoat is offered in a slime-resistant formula for next year.

Most of the other boats around me looked much cleaner, and I suspect that one or two might have been actually power-washed.

In any event, I too am disappointed with the Hydrocoat performance. I may contact Pettit and see what they have to say about it. The bow area looks cleaner than the mid and aft areas- perhaps that is due to the higher wear factor of the paint in those spots.

My location is mid-way up Narragansett Bay, RI. We have had a lot of storm run-off over the past month with all of the rain this summer. I wonder if that could be the reason? However, most other boats were much cleaner than mine.

 

[Mike G.]

Rich:

If it weren't for the very clean swatch on the rudder, I would have also guessed that the forward section would be cleaner.

A mooring neighbor used Micron Extra. His bottom has significantly more growth and a very thick coat of slime.

BTW: What the heck is in those blooms? I went for a swim July 4th week and did some scrubbing with a long handle boat brush. I came aboard and was covered with little black biting critters!!! They were all over the brush the brush bristles.

 

[Rick D]

That's a serious difference between the Hydrocoat & Copper Shield! Hey, Rich: the prop looks good. Did you use anything on it?

 

[Ed Schenck]

Now you tell me! I have two gallons of Hydrocoat in the basement for next season.
Maybe it will do better in Lake Erie.

 

[Rich Stidger]

Now you tell me! I have two gallons of Hydrocoat in the basement for next season.

Ditto here. I have one gallon for next year.

 

[Rich Stidger]

......... Hey, Rich: the prop looks good. Did you use anything on it?

I used Pettit Zinc Coat Barnacle Barrier, about $19 at Defender. One spray can will last for two years. Apply 3-4 thin coats each year.

I have tried most of the common anti-fouling solutions. I've tried ablative paint, hard bottom paint, Interlux spray coating, HawkSpeed coating (like PropSpeed), and this zinc coating.

Basically nothing seems to work very well. However this Pettit zinc coating works as well as anything else regardless of price, and it is comparatively cheap.

I typically have a bit more growth when I haul out in mid to end of October after the water has a chance to get a bit warmer, so YMMV.

 

[Sumner]

...If it weren't for the very clean swatch on the rudder, I would have also guessed that the forward section would be cleaner...

I have very limited experience with this, but looking at the bottom of our Mac after 2 months in the water in Florida this past spring I saw more barnacle growth towards the stern and down low.

I had to clean the dinghy 3 times on the trip. It was in the water all of the time with no bottom paint. The barnacles got quite large. The Mac seemed to get growth at the water line, but mostly some slime. I did wipe the water line down twice on the water, but after pulling the boat had no real barnacle growth at the water line. It was all down low on the hull, boat has a centerboard no keel, and towards the stern.

I'd put on 2 coats of Sea Hawk's Tuff Stuff followed by 2 coats of Sea Hawk Cukote Biocide Plus ....

http://www.bottompaintstore.com/cukote-biocide-plus-selfpolishing-bottom-paint-p-9475.html

... ablative in black with one coat of the same in dark blue since the boat is trailer.

The barnacles that were there were only about 1/8 inch in dia. at the stern and very, very small forward. From that and since the bottom has the same paint on the entire surface it looks like in our case at least that there is less growth forward. The growth was so small that I was able to scrape off what was there in about 20 minutes and it didn't wear through the one coat of blue into the black anywhere.

On the Endeavour there were some blisters and we had the bottom paint taken off of it and are having some of the blisters filled now and will either have the rest filled, depending on cost, before we go back down to Florida or I will finish filling them then. I'll then put the same barrier coat I used on the Mac and I'm also going to try the same bottom paint on the boat as it will be hauled probably 6-8 months out of the year.

If it doesn't perform well we will try something else,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

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[lbertran]

Hydrocoat

FWIW, we boat in the Chesapeake and use Hydrocoat on a small power boat. It works very well in that application. Our sailboat gets the WM PCA Gold with Irgarol and have been very happy with that. Hydrocoat does well when fast motoring keeps the bottom clean.

 

[Rick486]

Re: Hydrocoat

I use 2 gallons of Petit Trinidad SR epoxy based paint at $230+/- each. At Irene haul I had slime but not even close to barnacles with May 15 launch. Barnacles on the prop and shaft where I used Petit lower unit paint, at $30 something dollars a spray can. Well, a diver cost $2/ft so for me that's maybe $88, call it $100 with tip. Duhhhh, so some smart person out there tell me why I should even bother painting anything when I can get a diver once a month for about the same cost, or less. Step back and take a look folks, are we locked into the spring bottom paint paradigm here on the East coast when we could go a different way? Speaking for myself, I have painted boat bottoms for about 30 years every spring and I ABHOR doing it.

 

[obsailor]

I used Hydrocoat for the first time this season on my boat in western Long Island Sound, very disappointing, lots of slime (shrimplike) in spite of brushing clean bi-weekly; one week after cleaning by a diver the hull was covered again. Easy to apply and clean-up but it doesn't do the job. What does Petit say about this? Back to Micron Plus ($$ ouch) but it works.

 

[Bob J.]

Has anyone here tried "coppercoat"?

Bob

 

[FourPoints]

Used WM pca gold this season, and have had very good results in western long island sound. Stamford harbor (east branch) is usually pretty bad for barnacles as well.

I had an unfortunate and rather embarrassing incident a few weeks back where my anchor drug after a 180 deg wind shift when i wasn't onboard the boat, resulting in my keel ending up in the mud on an outgoing tide with more of my hull out of the water than i would like to admit at low tide (she refloated just find with no damage as the tide came back in, and we found an empty mooring). While part of her bottom was exposed to everyone i took a good look and found no growth of any kind under the hull, and only a light bit of slime near the waterline. I do take a sponge and wipe the waterline down about once a month while on the hook, but have not had to do anything at all to the bottom.

 

[sailaway78]

I used

After the oil spill last year, ruined the Trinidad on my boat, after only a year in the water, I didn't want to spend the 240 a gallon again. Went back with a produce called Super Ship Bottom, which is made by a small co. in Fla. After talking to them extensively, and being told it would last three years, I bought their paint, at a paltry 125 per gallon. It is a hard ablative. Has now been on a year, in S.Louisiana. No growth of any kind. Now if I could just keep the critters off the prop, all would be good.

 

[Cwoody]

-- I used some left over Blue Seas Copper Shield on the forward section . Mike

Hey Mike, Are you talking about "Blue Water Copper Shield" ?. I put on 2 coats last spring and have been very happy with the results.
Just a week ago, I had the hull cleaned in the water for the first time this year.
The guy from the hull cleaning service said, "Aside from some barnacles on the bottom of my keel and propeller, and a medium layer of slime algae, the paint was in good shape and was an easy clean. "
I plan to stick with Blue Water. Think I'll get some ZINC COAT BARNACLE BARRIER for the prop as well.