When I bought Xanthus the bottom had been beautifully antifouled and I carried on adding to this annually until we started thinking of the Round Britain.
I was unsure of the state of the wood around the rudder stocks so the question arose of a full strip off. This produced visions of three months toxic scraping or alternatively Nitromors or burning.
We decded to be brave and try low presure blasting by a specialist contractor. The result was a revelation and the wood cleaned speedily and thoroughly at a cost which was very competitive.
For recoating we decided to go the epoxy route and the logical next step was to use a copper epoxy antifouling, Coppercoat which promises and end to antifouling for at least 10 years.
I seem to recall that the cost of the Coppercoat material equated to about 5 years supply of conventional antifoul although of course the antifoul would have required a primer and there is no labour cost brought into the equation.
We have had our second lift out and it is working well with minimal build up of slime and still adhering well.
The colour is unpleasant - a dirty grey green which looks unappetising next to George Morgan Harris's shiny red bottom but I can live with this.
So the moral and the route I should have taken sooner would seem to be to not be afraid to go back to bare wood and to consider a copper epoxy when you recoat
I hate rot and barnacles
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JohnSK
- Sub-Lieutenant
- Posts: 195
- Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2004 5:42 pm
- Location: United Kingdom
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DSimonds
- Rigger
- Posts: 27
- Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2008 3:10 pm
- Location: United Kingdom
I had anti-foul removed from Trident(H31)by a company called ARC - Anti Foul Removal Company. They were absolutely excellent, both in terms of the care they took and the non aggressive nature of the process which uses a pumice sludge. The result was first class. They can also apply Coppercoat, but I decided against this perhaps wrongly. Their web site www.arccompany.co.uk.
Derek Simonds
Derek Simonds