Propeller maintnance

[Ken Cross]

I have our Hunter 30 on the hard right now for a new bottom job and I am wondering: What (if anything) do you do to keep growth off your prop. I wet sanded it a bit today to take off the growth that has occurred since March of last year. Not much (6 barnacles and some black stuff.) I've read putting lanolin on it will help. Would polishing it help (presently it has a rough surface including some casting marks.) I'm thinking I'd need to take off quite a bit of material to get it shiny and smooth.

Ken

 

[Hello Below]

Ken

I can't afford Prop Speed ($500) which I understand is the cream of the crop; but, Pettit Prop Coat Barnacle Paint ($25) seems to work for me in the PNW waters.

 

[Anonymous 121765]

Ken,

Hello has a good point.

Years ago, I tried the 5 step shaft & prop coating. Oh, at the time this was supposed to be the cat's meow.
It was however, the cat's me-OUCH. I sail out of John Pass. The incoming tidal current is stronger than outgoing. These can get up to 4KTS at times. When these tides happen, there is alot of sand suspended in the water & I go in-n-out alot.

After 3 months, this sandpaper effect ruined the fabulous (?) shaft & prop coating. $500.00 wasted.
I now do what Hello does with Pettit paints. Some haulouts, I have the yard use Pettit bottom paint &
It does well. I also have monthly scuba cleaning. My bottom jobs I use 4 coats at the waterline, rudder shaft, prop, leading edges & 3 coats on the hull.

I average 6 years between bottom jobs. I also have my scuba guy use fine course pads so as not to lose as much paint.

CR

 

[RoyS]

Tried auto paste wax last year and it seemed to help. I will check again when hauled out in a few weeks. Others?

 

[All U Get]

Petit sprayed about four coats, I'm willing to go eight coats if it would last a year between haul outs.

All U Get

 

[Rich Stidger]

I have used the Pettit Prop Coat Barnacle Paint and found that it works as well as anything else. Ablative bottom paint comes off too quickly, and hard paints stay on but the cleaning, priming, and painting is a time-consuming job. The Pettit spray is quick and easy to put on about 3 coats. One can will be enough for two seasons. However, I now use the Cold Galvanize spray paint that is available at Ace or any hardware store. Compare the labels- exactly the same stuff- or really close enough. Sme amount of zinc which is the main ingredient. A 20% larger can for about $7-8. I have been using this Cold Galvanize for 10 years with the same performance as the Pettit.

It is really too bad that the government has legislated all the really good stuff as illegal. If the truth be known, use of a more toxic but better performing prop paint would save huge amounts of fuel and it's resulting pollution.

 

[John T1594]

It seems that I post this advice about every six months od so:
I have used the same method for the past ten years and never have more than one or two barnacles on my prop or shaft. I clean the stainless steel shaft and bronze prop down to clean metal with a wire brush on an electric drill. Wipe with solvent and apply two coats of a non-metallic primer. I have used Interprotect successfully but other non-metallic primers work as well – even Rustoleum primer. I then apply two coats of any available copper based bottom paint and splash the boat. Don't prime or paint under or over the zincs. As I said, little to no fouling after six+ months. I use the boat almost every weekend and motor perhaps for 30-60 minutes total each time we take the boat out. By the end of the season, the paint has mostly worn off the tips and parts of the prop blades but is intact elsewhere.

I have tried this method without the primer and using only a coat or two of hard bottom paint and always got bad fouling of the prop and shaft. Interlux outdrive spray works well if used with their primer but is more expensive. I have heard others theorize that the electrolysis current set up between the metal shaft/prop and plain copper paint somehow keeps the copper inactive and thus allows barnacle fouling. A non-metallic barrier coat of primer stops this interaction and allows the copper to inhibit growth.

I sail in the salt waters of Barnegat Bay NJ and keep the boat in Forked River - a somewhat brackish river feeding the bay.

 

[Stu Jackson]

All well & good for those of you who haul out each year (I do feel your pain), but those of us who stay in the water use divers.

 

[capta]

After more than 50 years on boats all over the world, if you find something that actually works on a boat that leaves the slip more than a few times a year, let me know. Interestingly back when, the salt would polish the paint off our taffrail log impellers while our props would foul horribly on the same crossing. Go figure.
In Oz we chromed the props on our Sf boats and even operating 5 days a week or more, the props still fouled.

 

[Davidasailor26]

It seems that I post this advice about every six months od so:
I have used the same method for the past ten years and never have more than one or two barnacles on my prop or shaft. I clean the stainless steel shaft and bronze prop down to clean metal with a wire brush on an electric drill. Wipe with solvent and apply two coats of a non-metallic primer. I have used Interprotect successfully but other non-metallic primers work as well – even Rustoleum primer. I then apply two coats of any available copper based bottom paint and splash the boat. Don't prime or paint under or over the zincs. As I said, little to no fouling after six+ months. I use the boat almost every weekend and motor perhaps for 30-60 minutes total each time we take the boat out. By the end of the season, the paint has mostly worn off the tips and parts of the prop blades but is intact elsewhere.

I have tried this method without the primer and using only a coat or two of hard bottom paint and always got bad fouling of the prop and shaft. Interlux outdrive spray works well if used with their primer but is more expensive. I have heard others theorize that the electrolysis current set up between the metal shaft/prop and plain copper paint somehow keeps the copper inactive and thus allows barnacle fouling. A non-metallic barrier coat of primer stops this interaction and allows the copper to inhibit growth.

I sail in the salt waters of Barnegat Bay NJ and keep the boat in Forked River - a somewhat brackish river feeding the bay.

Glad your method works for you, but in Forked River fouling was never a big problem for us anyway. We would just sand the prop smooth each winter, and by the next haul out we still only had a couple of barnacles.