Bottom Paints and Coatings

Discussion in 'Materials' started by NewTech, Jan 20, 2016.

  1. gonzo
    Joined: Aug 2002
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    Location: Milwaukee, WI

    gonzo Senior Member

    I've been looking at it for years. Most marinas over-wash the bottoms and remove more than is necessary. The main problem is that boats don't move much so the ablative paint is not effective. I can see scraping off the barnacles or mussles, the algae doesn't affect anything. It is largely cosmetic for a boat that is not racing.
     
  2. schakel
    Joined: Jul 2008
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    Location: the netherlands

    schakel environmental project Msc

    As far as if algue are not a obstruction for an underwater body:
    the shark skin suits they use in swimming proves the opposite.
    A thin well structured surface keeps a thin layer of non turbulent waterflow next to the surface of the hull.
    To my information there are no Eelsnot swimsuits that are effective.
    shark_collage_1.jpg
     
  3. gonzo
    Joined: Aug 2002
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    Location: Milwaukee, WI

    gonzo Senior Member

    Algae will slow a boat by a small percentage. Slow moving boats will have a negligible increase in resistance. Most of these boats rarely move anywhere. There is a large percentage that only go from the yard to their mooring or dock and back once a year.
     

  4. NewTech
    Joined: Jan 2016
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    Location: west coast us

    NewTech Junior Member

    The cost of new high tech coatings is not that bad it's about the same as high end coatings that last 2-5 years. Lets look at it this way if you buy a really good top of the line anti-fouling paint for $285 a gallon and you get 5 years out of it, that gallon cost you $57 per year multiply that by however many gallons your boat needs and you have an idea of your annul coast for bottom paint. If we do the same math with a completely non toxic fouling-release coating at $320.50 per gallon that in 5 years just ran out of it's warranty and you see another 3 years before you need to re-coat the coast is $40.06 per year. We are seeing life spans of over ten years with current technology available today. The other fact to consider is fuel savings most nano structured coating on the market today greatly reduce parasitic drag and it's common to see 5-10% reduction in fuel burn. Even sail boats are seeing great advantages with these coatings, as they are non toxic an non ablative you can clean them in the marina remember your not stopping marine growth with these coatings just not giving them a place to hold on.
    In my opinion it's actually cheaper in the long run to do the right thing for the environment. We have a number of boats in pacific NW that have adopted this new way of doing things, some have even stated they think the fuel savings over the life of the coating will actually pay for there next haul out and re-coat. We will see if this is fact or not.
     
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