GEAR ON TEST - FLAG PERFORMANCE EXTRA
 

Performance Extra is a new antifouling from Flag that’s been carefully developed to pre-empt future legislation against the use of biocides. Instead, the paint contains a high proportion of copper, which, through an electrochemical reaction with salt water, gives barnacles and other creatures a tiny shock. It’s a bit like a schoolboy putting a battery on his tongue. It won’t kill the creatures, but it deters them from taking up residence.

The finish of the Performance Extra is described as being ‘semi-hard’. It’s somewhere between a straight forward self-polishing, eroding antifouling and a hard racing finish that can be smoothed and faired. The antifouling is designed for use in all types of fouling area, at all speeds up to 35kn – it’s OK I haven’t mentioned that to Jumblie, it might give the old girl heart failure – and even on drying moorings. Colours available are light blue, dark blue, red, black and ‘steel’ white. It’s suitable for use on hulls of GRP, wood, ferro or steel (if a primer is used). Overcoating other types of antifouling means providing a good, sound surface, but otherwise the Flag paint is pretty widely compatible. Two coats are advised, with extra along the waterline and on leading and trailing edges. Cans of 450ml size are available for touching up or for adding to the boot-topping. At general working temperature, the paint should be touch dry in a couple of hours and ready to be overcoated in six hours, so if you’re lucky with the weather you should be able to get two coats on in one day. Maximum recommended time between application and launching is two months.

We chose to apply the antifouling with a roller, finishing off awkward areas with a brush. Because of the high copper content , the paint is very slow to mix and each 2.5ltr tin took about 10 minutes of stirring. If you have a stirring hook that goes into an electric drill, it would be a bonus.

The paint is quite thick when mixed and is quite ‘gluey’. I thought I’d done a pretty good job of surface preparation with much scraping and priming, but even so the new paint found loose substrate and pulled it off. It doesn’t particularly matter, but it does mean the bottom is less than fair in places. (No change there then, my cruel colleagues will respond).

Coverage is good and the paint flows on easily. The second coat also went on well and seems to be even. All we have to do now is see how it actually performs.

Contact Bainbridge International

Tel 01489 77600

Email info@bainbridgeint.co.uk

Web www.bainbridgemarine.co.uk   www.flagfinishes.co.uk

June 2007 Sailing Today