One of the most frequently asked questions from PBO readers is, ‘Should I invest in copper antifouling?’ So I thought I’d share with you some news from what might be the longest test of copper antifouling on a yacht there’s been. When we ordered a new Sadler Starlight 39 just over 14 years ago we weren’t intending for her to be a copper antifouling test bed, but somehow, that’s what she’s become!

Before she was first launched, we coated her in one of the then very new copper-epoxy formulations. Until this autumn she’s never been out of the water for more than 12 hours a year, so our 14-year test really is 14 years, not just 14 summers. Applying the copper coating was surprisingly easy using a normal paint roller; the hard part was rubbing down the gel coat to create a good bond.

As an experiment we painted the rudder in three vertical stripes: one in copper and two in different top-of-the-range antifoulings. As time went by we regretted this test, because each year we were faced with re-coating the anti-fouled stripes, whereas the copper just went on working from year to year. However, it did show that the ageing copper performed as well as new antifouling. As we all know, copper antifouling is expensive, but claimed to last for many years, saving you money, eventually, as well as liberating you from the annual chore of scrubbing and re-antifouling your boat.

Does it really last? Is it worth the money? Those are the two major questions, but there’s a third – will it work at all? Since the first brands came onto the market there have been some dodgy products; boat owners were badly let down by a company that was, it claims in its defence,‘supplied with the wrong kind of copper powder’. Others have found it wouldn’t go on properly. We were fortunate in using the original Copperbot formula, now marketed as Coppercoat by Aquarius Marine Coatings.

Our experience with Coppercoat has been fantastic. In all the 14 years we’ve never had a barnacle, seaweed, nothing... except a thin layer of brown slime that simply washes off. It’s recommended that each year the copper coating should be lightly abraded to expose fresh copper to the surface, but we have never done this simply because we’ve never had the boat out of the water for long enough, and it would be hard work!

But this year is different. We lifted the boat out in October and were surprised to see worm-like crustaceans that needed scraping off. So we rang Aquarius, who suggested we lightly abrade the hull with Scotch-Brite, and apply new Coppercoat to the patches where there was fouling.

Three litres of Coppercoat did four coats on the rudder and the keel, which had been damaged by the odd grounding, and a couple of touch-ups. Now we’ll have to wait a year to see if abrading the copper has brought its performance back to normal, and whether the patches of new Coppercoat will perform as well as the existing coating.

The original claim for our copper coat was that it would last 10 years and many people were sceptical. Our test proves the doubters wrong, and we’re crossing our fingers our copper coating will keep doing its job for many more years.

There’s plenty of good reading in PBO this month, whether you’re ‘in’ or ‘out’ of the water. Enjoy!

Supplier:
Aquarius Marine Coatings Ltd,
Shears Building,
Stone Lane Industrial Estate,
Wimborne,
Dorset,
BH21 1HD

Tel: +44 (0)1202 888802
Fax: +44 (0)1202 882100
Email: info@coppercoat.com
Website: www.coppercoat.com