FreeRadical said..
My money, if I had any, would be on robotics. Like the proliferation of drone technology, I can see cost effective automatic underwater drones scurrying continuously over the hull cleaning it, popping up only to solar recharge.

Like this but much smaller, cheaper and completely autonomous. I'm off to the patent office!

How about a robotic crab with suckers at the end of its legs and small scrapers replacing its claws attach some fishing line to it so when it falls off it can be retrieved this idea just writes itself, why has nobody designed it b4

I put Copper Coat on the Adams 10 I had and it was not worth a pinch in the hot water we get in Queensland. The water temperature in the harbor and canals here gets to over 30 degrees in summer. It may work better in the cold waters of Tasmania. I have found the best antifouling to be Micron 66 which is not cheap but lasts over 2 years in hot water. Altex 5 runs a close second and is reasonably priced. I use Propspeed on the propeller. Some people push it to 3 years but I like to pull my boats out of the water very 2 years just to check there are no problems. The underwater treatment of your boat is a complete system. It is no use having an antifouling on the bottom of the boat tha lasts for 2 years if the coating on the propeller only lasts 1 year. Unfortunately there are a lot of variables when it comes to antifouling, water temperature, how often you use you boat, do you mind giving you boat the occasional underwater scrub or are you racing and want a really smooth bottom. My advise is to pick the brains of the professional antifouling blokes at your local boat yard to see exactly works in your area. Over the years I have heard of lots of concoctions for Antifouling, but I am still to see one that really works. The people that claim to have something that works are usually in cold water where nearly any sort of coating will retard growth. You might as well wipe Grease on your boat and propeller as it will work just as well.

Jode5 said...
I put Copper Coat on the Adams 10 I had and it was not worth a pinch in the hot water we get in Queensland. The water temperature in the harbor and canals here gets to over 30 degrees in summer. It may work better in the cold waters of Tasmania. I have found the best antifouling to be Micron 66 which is not cheap but lasts over 2 years in hot water. Altex 5 runs a close second and is reasonably priced. I use Propspeed on the propeller. Some people push it to 3 years but I like to pull my boats out of the water very 2 years just to check there are no problems. The underwater treatment of your boat is a complete system. It is no use having an antifouling on the bottom of the boat tha lasts for 2 years if the coating on the propeller only lasts 1 year. Unfortunately there are a lot of variables when it comes to antifouling, water temperature, how often you use you boat, do you mind giving you boat the occasional underwater scrub or are you racing and want a really smooth bottom. My advise is to pick the brains of the professional antifouling blokes at your local boat yard to see exactly works in your area. Over the years I have heard of lots of concoctions for Antifouling, but I am still to see one that really works. The people that claim to have something that works are usually in cold water where nearly any sort of coating will retard growth. You might as well wipe Grease on your boat and propeller as it will work just as well.

Thanks for that jode 5 just save a heap of time and money

Jode5 said..
I put Copper Coat on the Adams 10 I had and it was not worth a pinch in the hot water we get in Queensland. The water temperature in the harbor and canals here gets to over 30 degrees in summer. It may work better in the cold waters of Tasmania. I have found the best antifouling to be Micron 66 which is not cheap but lasts over 2 years in hot water. Altex 5 runs a close second and is reasonably priced. I use Propspeed on the propeller. Some people push it to 3 years but I like to pull my boats out of the water very 2 years just to check there are no problems. The underwater treatment of your boat is a complete system. It is no use having an antifouling on the bottom of the boat tha lasts for 2 years if the coating on the propeller only lasts 1 year. Unfortunately there are a lot of variables when it comes to antifouling, water temperature, how often you use you boat, do you mind giving you boat the occasional underwater scrub or are you racing and want a really smooth bottom. My advise is to pick the brains of the professional antifouling blokes at your local boat yard to see exactly works in your area. Over the years I have heard of lots of concoctions for Antifouling, but I am still to see one that really works. The people that claim to have something that works are usually in cold water where nearly any sort of coating will retard growth. You might as well wipe Grease on your boat and propeller as it will work just as well.

Here is a part of what was written on the Bote cote web page concerning there copper epoxy base anti foul
boatcraft.com.au/Shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5_51

Cop-R-Bote Antifoul
<div class="categoryImg">

<div class="content">A truly back to the future product. The early seafarers discovered that copper was an ideal coating for the bottoms of their ships to beat the teredo worms and the seaweed and barnacle which so slowed them down or destroyed their ships. Their only way to apply it was to nail thin copper plates all over the bottom of their wooden ships. Now we have a much better way, Cop-R-Bote. Ultra fine copper powder mixed into an epoxy resin. You paint the copper onto the bottom of your boat. It will last for years and years. Sadly, like every other antifouling system, it is not a magic bullet. It is less active than some of the ablative antifoul paints. As a result, the bactereial slime will start to lodge on the coating. This needs to be wiped off with a scotch brite pad now and then, or it will shield the copper which will allow the animals (barnacles and mussels etc.) to get started and the vegetatitive stuff (weed) to hang on. How often, well it depends on the water temperature and the nutrient in the water and the degree to which the bugs have gotten used to being poisoned by heavy metals. Mostly only every couple of months, but in North Queensland, perhaps a bit more often.


Basically saying the say as you Jode 5

Ok, after all the burnishing the bottom is very slick, so you do go faster, but I never got more than a couple of months before I had to dry out and scrub the bottom. It does last for a long time but I did get sick of the continual maintenance so switched back to the conventional stuff after a few months. I tried it on a planked boat and a glass boat, obeyed the makers instructions faithfully but same results.
John Hitch's home made brew of epoxy and powdered copper worked a lot better, I think because he got a lot more copper exposed after the polishing.

cisco said..

HG02 said..
I have heard some fishos out in Bass straight use a mixture of anti foul and hot chili powder

Some buy tetracycline powder from rural supplies shops and mix it in with antifoul and there are copper based compounds/molecules you can buy from landscape shops also.

Has anybody used Copper Coat with success on a fibreglass hull?? I suppose if it worked and was economical, everybody would be using it.

My father Copper Coated his Lotus 950 three years ago. He swears by it, however that is in Auckland so the water is a lot cooler than Queensland.

I used this on my last boat for a bottom scrub which worked brilliantly, nice and soft yet scrubbed everything off.



So I tried to make a new one for the new boat which is a bit flatter in the rear section. Ended up 6 mtrs long and utterly useless

2bish said..
Hi, regarding copper based anti-foul, I just noticed this warning in my Volvo manual under the saildrive section:

"Underwater hull Anti fouling agent containing copper oxide can increase the risk of galvanic corrosion and therefore should never be used".

People with boats with saildrives usually paint them and a couple of feet around them with non copper based hard antifouling.