Copper Coat Antifoul systems

[Zane Lewis]

Looking for feed back on this stuff.

Traditional ablative hard or soft copper paint, Re-coat every 1-2 years and a strip back after 8-10 years
vs
Copper impregnated resin, 4 coats as per instructions and meant to be good for 10 years.
https://coppercoat.com/

Has anyone used this stuff, how does it compare for price, performance etc.
Is it the same as Prop Speed coatings that have become very common. (have used)
Zane

[The Q]

Not used it, but many around me have..
It works very well in our waters, but needs application properly, I remember a dispute with a boat builder who applied it to a club members boat and coppercoat came off in sheets, which suggests improper application..

Will it work in your area..? I don't know, you'll have to ask around where your boat is moored.. References I've seen in high fouling areas with boats that spend all week parked up suggest it's doesn't work well in those conditions..

Me I've gone for VC17M (with copper) also requiring careful preparation and best in light fouling areas.. Which it is where my boat will be, and I can crane it out anytime at no extra cost other than to my arms... It's a manual crane for up to 1 ton..

[johngsandusky]

I'm interested in this too. Hauling and painting is a significant part of my maintenance costs. Even having a diver scrub twice a year if necessary would be much cheaper than painting every other year.

[John B]

I'd be tempted if it was part of a shed refit and conditions were right. But I've only heard ambiguous reports of success v tragic failure. Court cases etc.
It's nothing at all like propspeed.
My understanding is it is less effective for actual fouling but cleans back easier ,so my expectation is that it would need cleaning more often but be able to take it.

[MoePorter]

[QUOTE My understanding is it is less effective for actual fouling but cleans back easier ,so my expectation is that it would need cleaning more often but be able to take it. ][/QUOTE] That was my experience...

I used it on my 25kt 27 ft Bolger designed lobster boat. I was in the water 4 +- months a year & it lasted 18 years. San Francisco CA region. Fine thin growth would appear within a month but it never got thicker throughout the season - never any hard growth ever. I'd clean the outdrive occasionally but never the hull till water blasting @ takeout which went really fast. Top speed dropped from 27kts to 25+ by the end of the season. It was banned in my area (stupid - the high CU content made it look more toxic than ablative coatings that...ablate into the water by design) - so went with the priciest Micron stuff I could find & it went 3 years with only minor touchup. The Micron did a better job visually on the slime but my minor speed drop was the same. It was a great solution for me...As far as screwing up the application, it's just epoxy & CU... figure out how to make epoxy stick to a boat bottom & you're good for a long time. Moe

[NickW]

Worth noting that CopperCoat can only be applied over stable substrates which is why it it is quite popular around here for frozen snot yots. IIRC PBO (a British yachting mag) did a 10 year test on CopperCoat on the Editor's boat moored in Poole Harbour, they gave it a good rating.

Nick

[John B]

[QUOTE My understanding is it is less effective for actual fouling but cleans back easier ,so my expectation is that it would need cleaning more often but be able to take it. That was my experience...

I used it on my 25kt 27 ft Bolger designed lobster boat. I was in the water 4 +- months a year & it lasted 18 years. San Francisco CA region. Fine thin growth would appear within a month but it never got thicker throughout the season - never any hard growth ever. I'd clean the outdrive occasionally but never the hull till water blasting @ takeout which went really fast. Top speed dropped from 27kts to 25+ by the end of the season. It was banned in my area (stupid - the high CU content made it look more toxic than ablative coatings that...ablate into the water by design) - so went with the priciest Micron stuff I could find & it went 3 years with only minor touchup. The Micron did a better job visually on the slime but my minor speed drop was the same. It was a great solution for me...As far as screwing up the application, it's just epoxy & CU... figure out how to make epoxy stick to a boat bottom & you're good for a long time. Moe

Good to hear. I'm pretty sure Zane will be talking about a 7 or 8 knot sailing boat, as I do.
That was also my point about a shed refit, or under a boatyard tent maybe. The failures seem to be related to application in between weather fronts or just plain bad technique. It's hard enough with normal antifouling.
We have terrible problem in my location with barnacles. They came in on cruise ships circa 2016 and are a plague ,so the antifoul industry is casting around trying to find a solution to that.
I'd be interested to know how copper coat handles those.

[Sandlapper]

I applied a double coat of Copperpoxy over a glassed plywood boat bottom about 20 years ago. Really tough stuff that makes a great water proof cover. It works well for a short time but definitely needed periodic cleaning for a whole season if you don't want speed reduced. Great for a tough boat bottom that does not live in the water.

[Zane Lewis]

thanks all,
yes as John said, yacht, 5-8 knots.
soft anti foul in the marina's we use is typically easily good for 2 years.
and yes epoxied timber hull glass over so stable.
even the soft copper will slime over if the boat does not get used.
Zane

[John B]

Exciting times then Zane. Bought it yet or planning? Love to know what you're doing.
There's two schools of thought on antifoul up here because of the barnacle issue. Carboline is soft and relatively inexpensive but you put a lot on v a hard expensive that you put less of on.
I'm doing the latter because as you know you can put soft over hard but not the other way around.
This is the one big reason I do like the idea of the copper coat. If it doesn't perform as expected you can treat it like a kind of super primer and perhaps even thin coat a soft antifoul like carboline on it . Polish it off over the year or two but you still have the copper coat substrate to come back to.

[Zane Lewis]

hi John, still the same plan, light narrow, simple, ballasted CB, 2 masts etc.
Had some issues around a practical layout, Center Board location, COE and stability raised by a builder who spent some time with me on it. So I spent some money on a professional.
Turns out he had spent some time sailing the ketch rigged (not schooner) version that was in Milford marina for many years. It had even done a couple of Fiji trips.
Any way that one had been ketch rigged to get the center of effort further forward to allow the CB case to be further forward as well.
We have shortened the foot on the main sail to the top of the transom, and using a square top rather than gaff it has moved the CoE forward a bit.
I'm still not 100% sold on the square top look, so I'm telling myself it looks like a gaff with topsail.
Z

[John B]

hi John, still the same plan, light narrow, simple, ballasted CB, 2 masts etc.
Had some issues around a practical layout, Center Board location, COE and stability raised by a builder who spent some time with me on it. So I spent some money on a professional.
Turns out he had spent some time sailing the ketch rigged (not schooner) version that was in Milford marina for many years. It had even done a couple of Fiji trips.
Any way that one had been ketch rigged to get the center of effort further forward to allow the CB case to be further forward as well.
We have shortened the foot on the main sail to the top of the transom, and using a square top rather than gaff it has moved the CoE forward a bit.
I'm still not 100% sold on the square top look, so I'm telling myself it looks like a gaff with topsail.
Z

You were looking at a Sharpie from memory. There were a couple I'd see around through the 80s and 90s. The one I'm thinking about was on the hard outside the boat storage in west Auckland looking sad but that was some years ago. Maybe 2010?
But you're looking at a new build eh.. I'd be looking into the copper coat in that case too.
Like I said, at the very least a super primer.

[Craic]

BRE Corrosion2.jpgBREcorrosion1.jpgI have been using VC 17 for many years, and have been really happy with the result, for many years.
But reports have popped up of severe pitting corrosion on V4 stainless steel underwater fittings, such as self bailers, in connection with such copper based antifoulings as VC17 and Coppercoat. When I looked closer on my own boat, I really found such pitting corrosion also on my own boats marine grade stainless steel keelbands. Very serious IMO. My own explanation is that the copper powers an electrogalvanic /-chemical chlorine attack on fissures where stainless steel fittings are mechanically strained.
I try to attach two photos here.