Pepper with your Kirby's

[Ian McColgin]

As I was ordering topside and bootstripe paints, I checked on the cost of their basic old-fashioned bottom paint. Better price than anyone else so I added that to my order.

I'm tired of being looked on as a freak so I asked if anyone else put Cayanne in the paint. I was told that they actually add it and shake the can for customers who bring in their own, and he's thinking of just buying cayanne in bulk and adding it to the recipe.

He also asked why it took me so long in my boating history to get to them. When I told him I'd been using Sears best exterior latex on previous boats he snorted. When I explained that Spaulding Dunbar taught me that trick back in the '60's he muttered, "He would."

[Concordia...41]

LOL

[paladin]

Damn, Ian...I've been branded a naysayer and warlock for suggesting the Cayenne pepper trick on the forum....:D

[Thorne]

Well, if Kirby does it it MUST be correct, right?

;0 )

Wonder if they make powdered habanero....

[Ian McColgin]

Or else Kirby's customers are wierd the Kirbys are too nice to say anything about it. Anyway, nice to get a little positive reinforcement.

An aside, godbless the internet. I know the WB article boosted Kirby's business but the internet really makes them accessable to a huge market. Like that guy in England still making real caulking mallets. Used to be some guy like that in every harbor. TAhe business about died out. But with the internet, it's like we're all in one harbor and at least a few traditional businesses can keep on.

[rbgarr]

"He would..."

I can just hear them muttering that! Wonderful.

I'm bottom painting also. Great weather for it: dry northwest breeze, sunny days, no dew.

[Bob Adams]

When I was a kid, I put pepper in my Baltimore Copper Paint, seemed to help, I wouldn't put it in a modern paint though.

[Ian McColgin]

Cayanne will work with any od timey cheap copper ablative.

Spaulding was a bit fameous for painting his topsides with the boat in the water. When people told him he couldn't he'd just smile, dip the brush in the water, and keep painting.

It's fun to do my hauls at what once was his place.

[Matt J.]

Kirby's paints, in general - two big thumbs up.

Kirby's bottom paint, in Maryland? Ah, no - w/ or w/o cayenne. I really do like their paints aside from the bottom paint. Far excelled that Brightsides junk for both color and texture.

(I snuck some cayenne into the paint at the marina when no one was looking and did most of one side with that mix... we had a miserable carpet of growth after a Chessie season; no discernable difference between cayenne and no).

I suppose pcford will be along shortly to tell us how stupid we are for using Kirby's? ;)

[Ian McColgin]

Certain of the slimies that want to grow on boat bottoms are repelled by cayanne - a different principle than toxicity from copper or other biocides.

Ablative paints take a different sort of care than hard and many modern paints. Mostly, the like a good rubdown, like currying your horse. They are sloughing paints and should be about gone by the time of your annual haul-out.

They will not work as well as modern paints if you don't brush regularly. And don't forget to floss the log paddles.

[katiedobe]

A friend of mine told me that he put Cayanne into his paint and the marine growth in the Mexican port was minimal compared to a boat that was painted at the same time as his.

He says it works.

[Andrew]

I did 1/2 of my 15 ft day sailor with cayanne the other with out. No appreciable difference. The boat spends several days at a time in the water, NC coastal sounds. I got in the habit of pulling it to the shore every few days to keep the growth down. Not a definitive study but I will continue to test the cayanne.

[gert]

I guess Kirky screwed up and put white peper in my paint intead of cayanne ( lumps were white)

[paladin]

The cayenne is not to keep the grass and slime off, but them shellfish and similar critters.....the cayenne does to their stomachs the same as it would to you if you ate a couple of teaspoons of it.....about 1 pound can of cayenne to one gallon of paint.:D

[ken connors]

I was just at Kirbys on Saturday for some red lead and bottom paint. I tried to pay with some cash and the rest on the credit card. Guy got so confused I just took the cash back and charged it all. Walmart it aint.......(thank God) Speaking of cayenne, I know an old italian guy who loves to dig quahogs. Before he cooks them he leaves them in a bucket of salt water with a little cayenne sprinkled in. He says it makes them "sneeze" and cleans them out.

[Bob Cleek]

Forget the cayenne! Use Di-Al available at any paint store. It's an additive sold for preventing mold that's added to stuff like bathroom paint. Put a lot of it in your bottom paint. It's nothing other than tributyltin in a solvent base. Tributyltin is what they USED to put in good bottom paint before it was outlawed. It was just too good at killing the critters.

[katiedobe]

Ahh but IMHO the idea is to use something that is effective and does minimal harm to the environment. Hence, Cayanne.