FAIR OR FOUL

Antifouling paints are becoming more ecologically friendly and more advanced. Jake Kavanagh explains how to get the most mileage from your freshly painted bottom, and looks at what’s coming in the future.

Antifouling has come a long way since 1625. That was when Willian Beale registered the first patent for a toxic underwater paint – a strange concoction of iron powder, cement and copper. How effective it was we have no idea, but it was the opening shot in a long war against weed and barnacles.

We’ve come a long way since then, and the modern boat owner has a huge range of hi-tech antifoulings to choose from. In the last two issues of PBO (471-472) we looked at copper resin antifouling with trade names such as Cuprotect, Coppershield and Coppercoat. They work by suspending a pure copper powder in am epoxy resin which is rolled onto the hull in a series of layers. It’s effective, as we discovered but there is a relatively high initial cost in getting it on, plus, it only comes in one colour – verdigris green.

A halfway house has just been launched by FLAG Paints who have developed a copper powder suspended in a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin to give the same effect as using epoxy but as a quick drying premixed paint (for more details see New Gear on p110).

PBO May 2006