10 year bottom paint

[Bill Root]

I just had a message from a fellow who met a rep from "Coppercoat USA" at the sailboat show in Annapolis. The rep was selling a two part bottom paint that was supposed to last for 10 years. It was expensive, about $1,000 paint cost for his 43' sailboat, but would be worth it if it performed as claimed. Anyone have experience with this product?

[ThirdHatt]

I just had a message from a fellow who met a rep from "Coppercoat USA" at the sailboat show in Annapolis. The rep was selling a two part bottom paint that was supposed to last for 10 years. It was expensive, about $1,000 paint cost for his 43' sailboat, but would be worth it if it performed as claimed. Anyone have experience with this product?

I have not heard of it, but I am skeptical that a paint could actually be effectiver at antifouling for 10 years, especially in tropical waters. $1000 paint cost is not terribly high because it should take 2-3 gallons to paint a 43' boat and good antifouling paint is $200-300/gallon. I sure hope it is true, but I am not holding my breath. The website says that it has been available to the public since 1991, so if it is so good I wonder why it has not taken over the market?

I just had all the old ablative paint removed from my hull and coated it with Pettit Trinidad Pro, the same as their highly regarded Trinidad S/R which is the gold standard in modified epoxy antifouling paints. I have had excellent results with this paint in the past and get an easy 3 years out of it with no barnacle or slime growth.

[Boatsb]

I have not heard of it, but I am skeptical that a paint could actually be effectiver at antifouling for 10 years, especially in tropical waters. $1000 paint cost is not terribly high because it should take 2-3 gallons to paint a 43' boat and good antifouling paint is $200-300/gallon. I sure hope it is true, but I am not holding my breath. The website says that it has been available to the public since 1991, so if it is so good I wonder why it has not taken over the market?

I just had all the old ablative paint removed from my hull and coated it with Pettit Trinidad Pro, the same as their highly regarded Trinidad S/R which is the gold standard in modified epoxy antifouling paints. I have had excellent results with this paint in the past and get an easy 3 years out of it with no barnacle or slime growth.

You removed ablative for Trinidad? Why. Trinidad is an older formulation that is not state of the art by pettits own admission. The rep in this part of the state recommends it for boats that already have a hard paint but has never discussed taking off the ablative for it.

FWIW I got 5+ years on Micron 66. Another year after that it was growing barnacles pretty regularly but 5 years of clean bottom is no BS.

[Boatsb]

I forgot to add.

The micron 66 did grow soft slime when it sat for 10 months before I bought the boat. I had it hand scraped and the boat stayed clean for 3 years after that.

The props and running gear was another story.

[ThirdHatt]

You removed ablative for Trinidad? Why. Trinidad is an older formulation that is not state of the art by pettits own admission. The rep in this part of the state recommends it for boats that already have a hard paint but has never discussed taking off the ablative for it.

FWIW I got 5+ years on Micron 66. Another year after that it was growing barnacles pretty regularly but 5 years of clean bottom is no BS.

Scott, In general Ablative is for fast boats that run alot and boats that come out of the water. Mine is neither. Although it will do 25kts, I rarely run her that hard. I like to cruise right at the 10.4kt hull speed 80% of the time and the rest of the time is spent either idling or crusing at 18kts. Around here the paint that resists barnacles and slime the best (by far) is Trinidad S/R. Yes, ablative paints have indeed come a long way and I use Micron 66 on my 31' Center Console that stays on a lift when not in use and runs 25kts+ everywhere it goes.

The reason that I removed the old paint is because the boat is new to me and although the PO told me that he used Optima (Ablative) on the last haulout I do not know what was used before that by the original owner. What I do know is that there was a significant buildup of antifouling paint on the hull, that what was there had begin to crack and peel and the survey recommended that I give consideration to having it all removed before applying more antifouling so that is what I did.

In general an ablative can be applied over a modified epoxy with just a quick sanding or slurry blast, but a modified epoxy cannot be applied over an ablative without heavy sanding and/or a primer coat. Because Trinidad S/R simply works so well around here for my application the choice was simple, remove the old buildup and start fresh with the paint that works best for my use of the boat. The fact that Trinidad is older technology is not a negative to me, only positive in that it is tried and true. Newer is not always better and I know what works for me, so why change it? Another benefit in my mind is that a modified epoxy is much better suited to having divers clean the bottom because scrubbing on an ablative wears the paint off. Paint your props and running gear with modified epoxy and you won't get the growth like with ablative because as soon as you run the ablative will wear right off the props. The fact that ablative can be easily applied over modified epoxy means that it will not be an issue if/when I ever decide to go to an ablative in the future. Seems like a win/win situation to me. YMMV.

[Boatsb]

One of my biggest positives on ablatives is the wearing down of the coating. It not only exposes new anti fouling agents but I get zero build up. Most of the boats here using Trinidad have build up after a few coats and never seem to get a smooth bottom.

I am not sure how different our area in the river around port Canaveral is to yours but I have the Micron 66 on a bunch of boats here and every one of them has a happy owner.

FWIW it is not for use on the props but reality is no paint holds upon the props in our muddy bottom areas.

[psquiggs]

I actually had a friend who allied this Copper Coat paint on a sail boat about a year ago. So far, so good. The paint is an epoxy and you have to mix it with copper granules as you mix. And it is a lot of copper, like a few pounds per quart. He told me that it has been used in the Mediterranean for a long time and has a good reputation there. The only draw back is that you must completely remove the old paint before applying this stuf

[captddis]

I have used Micron on every boat since 1983. Micron 22,33,44, csc,66. I won't put Trinidad or hard paint on anything! Just builds up and starts flaking off.
Around here we use Vivid on the running gear which is an ablative. Here is my boat after 26 months of use and after the pressure washer washed a lot of the paint off of the gear. Not bad!!








PS notice the grey barrier coat showing through the black Micron 66. No buildup!

[MikeP]

10 year bottom paint? I think I'll dust off my perpetual motion machine; the folks marketing that paint sound like the perfect people to sell it for me!

[jim rosenthal]

I am on my third year of not having to repaint Blue Note's bottom; I think it has Micron on it, but I am not certain. It has whatever Smith's Marina put on it the last time they did the bottom. Each year I ask them to paint it, and so far for two years running they have advised me that it did not require a repaint. Imagine that- a marina that tells you NOT to paint the bottom. They do advise a zinc spray for the running gear, which has done fairly well at keeping barnacles off the rotating gear and metal parts.

When she was at Slane Marine, the bottom was soda-blasted clean and a few more coats of Interprotect were rolled on, then a hard bottom paint covered by an ablative paint (might have been Cukote or one of the same company's paints). So far, so good. I think Smith's put one coat of ablative paint over all that, and nothing since then.

So ten years doesn't seem so crazy- I won't get there, but I have two plus years, maybe three, on the present system, with it holding up well to date.