copperpoxy?????

[big cat]

Hi: I recently came across a bottom coating product (copperpoxy)
& wanted to know if anyone had had any experence with it. Thier claim is the product will last 8-10 years before having to recoat. Thier site is www.copperpoxy.com

[tom28571]

What do you expect the Copperpoxy to do?

I've had it on a 26 foot sailboat for over 10 years in brackish water on the coast of North Carolina. As an antifouling coating, it is only marginally effective. I added regular anti-fouling paint in the first season.

I have it on a 24 foot powerboat that is normally kept on a trailer. After 10 days in the water last summer, there was enough buildup to drop speed significantly. There is a stainless keel strip on the boat and it fouls much more and quicker than the Copperpoxy which says that is doing some good. I used it on the powerboat because it makes a very tough, abrasion resistant coating and allows me to keep the boat in the water for a short while.

If you clean and rub the boat bottom regularly, they say the Copperpoxy works well but so does no coating at all.

We have a Cross 46 tri that we applied Copperpoxy on 2 years ago. We charter this every day in the summer. Here are my impressions...
-very hard to apply evenly, we used large brushes and then knocked down the brush strokes with a foam roller with water on it. After curing we wet sanded it to a slick finish. If you can I would use a sprayer. I have seen much better relults with spray application.
-It works well for hard growth(there has been no barnacles) but dosn't do much for slime. We have ended up scrubbing every month to mantain performance... remember this is with useing the boat every day.
-You have to bring it down to a bare hull or epoxy sub surface. This required a lot of sanding and then a few coats of epoxy to seal the old fiberglass before application.
-I don't know if we will put it on again... we won't last 8 years with this coating... I don't know if you could consider us lasting 2 years.

[Tohbi]

the following url is for a company that sells an interesting "no blush" epoxy that i'm going to try. they also sell a copper powder that is mixed with epoxy. they suggest using the thinest epoxy possible but one can mix the ratio themselves if you want a whole lotta copper in it. you might want to try them; it looks much cheaper than copperpoxy, too.

http://www.epoxyproducts.com/map.html

[gonzo]

I've used copperpoxy on racing sailboats, the intended application. Its advantage is that it can be burnished better than an ablative antifouling. However, the antifouling properties are just fair.

[Tohbi]

gonzo, how did you apply and burnish it? wet or dry sandpaper?

[gonzo]

Rolled it on and wetsanded after.