Barnacle Prevention

A very interesting stuff Guillermo! Thanks.

Richard

 

The first time I heard of hot pepper powder as anti-fouling was back in the early 1970's at a little boatyard on the lower Hillsborough River. Those guys swore it worked.

 

NO,--but you can put the whole boat in a floating sock arrangement.

Its like a floating sausage around the boat that opens for access and there is a huge bag underneath that the boat sits in.

Thinking aloud,---I suppose a tin of glue and a swimming pool or duck pond liner could be made up into something.

Or you can buy a much more expensive floating dock that sits in your marina berth, these are becoming very popular around here. They are made from a PVC like black plastic obviously welded together and are pumped out in minutes by a leaf blower. Very Impressive!!

But if throwing money at boats is not your thing, a scraper and a pair of Speedos is what you will need. Frequent cleaning is far less laborious than a 3 month job.

 

Yes it works...it doesn't last a lot of time, but the capsacine (the active molecule) is a good repellent of marine growth on hulls. Some of us here have a big concern here with heavy metals released over a reef that already in not a perfect health, so alternative solutions not using poisons are looked.

 

Sure Ilan, you know!
I got the hint from a Mexican Fisherman in the 80ies! And I cannot say how long it remains active, because we mixed it into our antifouling which made it difficult to say if the chilli was still working after, say 18 month. But it made a difference of one year before renewing the antifouling (from 2 to 3 years).

Regards
Richard

 

Could this be the proper ingredient?

It is a pepper just 1/2" long, incredibly hot. Even after washing your hands any food you touch suddenly tastes peppery.
We got a handful from a friend who got it from a friend etc. and put the seeds in the soil today. Hopefully the crop in the autumn will be enough to paint a 27 ft. hull.

 

It is Cornelis.

Grind the entire fruit when dried, but without the stem.

Regards
Richard

 

Polyethylene, Polypropylene Fouling

I can't remember for sure, but it seems to me that polyethylene and polypropylene materials were very good at resisting marine growth? What little accumulated could be power washed off very easy??

I'm thinking of those plastic barrels made of polyethylene and their resistance to marine fouling?

 

Polyethylene is a thermoplastic, that is, you can't just get a bucket of the stuff and paint it on. It gets formed in sheets, and then heated to make stuff out of.

Polyurea is a tough, flexible high-build coating that would (probably) shed marine life. A good example of this is Sherwin Williams "Envirolastic" line of coatings. The problem with this is that such an industrial coating would be more expensive to apply that simply pulling out your boat more often.

I would also like to second the folks that were suggesting chili powder, I believe that we doubled the life of our bottom paint by adding 1 cup of cayanne pepper per 1 gallon of bottom paint.

 

Something else in the line of repelling larvae:

http://www.gizmag.com/antifouling-b...aign=553ddeef85-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

"Medetomidine is a veterinary medicine that has been shown to prevent barnacle larvae from attaching to ship?s hulls. In cooperation with colleagues at the universities of Turku and Helsinki, Professor Anders Blomberg at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Gothenburg has succeeded in identifying and describing the gene that controls how barnacles sense and react to medetomidine.

When the barnacle cyprid larva encounters a surface containing medetomidine the molecule enters the octopamine receptor in the larva. This makes the larva legs start kicking and it cannot settle to the painted surface. This is a reversible effect that disappears when the larva swims away from the surface so it regains its function and can settle somewhere else.

The results, which are published in the scientific journal Molecular Pharmacology, explain how it is possible to develop an environmentally friendly and effective antifouling paint which instead of killing barnacles acts as a deterrent.

Understanding how the substance works when it binds to the receptor also makes it possible to develop selective agents that only affect barnacles and not other marine organisms, says Professor Blomberg."

 

I believe you fellows misunderstood me.

I was asking about the natural capability of the HDPE plastic 55 gal drums/barrels to resist marine fouling. I believe it has some natural resistance, and what little fouling occurs can be pressure washed off.

True or not??

 

Its always hard to keep marine growth from adhering to paddle wheel style log transducers . A few years ago a race boat guy stopped by while I was out of the water for an antifoul. He had a spray can of Harken Mc Lube teflon. He suggested spraying the new paddle wheel I was fitting so I did. No anti foul applied . Well, that paddle wheel stays clean and free rotating longer than any product, anti foul, Ive ever used. Give it a try. Make sure your paddle wheel is brand new...no scratches or abrasion on the plastic.

 

Such barrels are used here in large numbers to mark nurseries. When new the material feels somewhat greasy and it takes longer for marine growth to start, but after a few years they all get beards.

 

Yes I understand that the marine growth can get bigger as it grows on itself, but how tenacious is the original layer attached?...and can that simply be pressure washed off relatively easy?

 

I think something happens to the surface, but I don't know which animal of plant does that. Fact is that you never find clams or oysters as a first population on PE and PP barrels. But there is some small worm-like creature leaving long hollow trails of calcium that are used by other life forms to adhere to.

Some of the barrels that drift ashore after a storm dry out in the sun and eventually most of the growth disappears, only the dull surface shows which part has been in the water. I guess that if there was no hold for growth, the barrels would rotate and stay relatively clean, but they don't.