How often should i antifoul my boat

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Boat Insurance. Member support. Member Benefits. Explore Boating. Call Get a Quote. Back to articles. Antifouling is necessary on boats that are on the water for any length of time. Antifouling — not as much fun as tinkering with the engine or polishing the chrome, but a vital maintenance task nonetheless.

The blokes in the white coats will be around for you later. Me, I get the wife to do it. Costs a bit more for the antifoul because she gets so much over herself, but it gives her something to boast about all year. Doesnt have anything to do with preventing rust - Its supposed to prevent the growth of marine life. I say 'supposed to' 'cos its not very good but its probably better than not doing it at all.

How often really depends on how fastidious you are about having a clean bum. For a 'performance boat' probably every year at beginning of season is the norm with a lift and pressure wash in between if you want that extra bit of wash creating speed. For a river cruiser like mine I've decided every two years is an economically aceptable routine but I'm on fresh water and growth problem is less.

For price etc best way is to do it yourself if you're wintering ashore - plenty of time and its quite satisfying to know you've looked after your own bum.

The sole purpose of antifouling is to stop marine growth on your hull. Even quite moderate fouling can actually prevent a fast boat from getting up on the plane at all. Bewildering also is the rang of types and makes of Anti foul.

A planing hull needs a hard type, while a displacement hull needs only the cheaper eroding or soft type. The best way to select anti foul is to go round the yard at lift out time, before Fred has got busy with the pressure washer. The effectiveness of the various brands and formulations varies considerably from one harbour to the next.

Yet that same compound is regarded as the best in other parts of the country. I remember thinking how attractive your boat looked with a lilac bottom Pxx Pauline B. When you get it done for free you don't quibble about the colour. Just grit your teeth, Lie back thinking of England and remark how few brushmarks there is in the finished job. Oh, and don't comment on how the antifoul is covering the grey streaks in her hair. Joined 15 Jun Messages 4, Location Oxfordshire.

Its got to be a good idea to take any boat out the water reguarly anyway, at least every 2 years. Most GRP boats have a degree of moisture in the hull and months drying out every year or so is always beneficial. Don't forget the outdrive, you should change the oil every year, check anodes, bellows, dings in the prop etc. Our all-inclusive guide to preparing for, choosing and using antifouling paints.

A serviced engine , new sails and carefully tensioned rigging are all worthless if you have a coral reef growing on the bottom of your boat. But how much preparation does your boat need? We test DIY methods for scraping, stripping, peeling and blasting old antifouling off the hull. But not all boats will need to do this! The good news is that the more antifouling there is on the boat, the easier it is to remove, so it pays to wait a few years between attempts.

First of all, take a good look at the surface of the old paint. Self-eroding antifouling should, as the name suggests, gently remove most of itself during the year — but hard antifouling and many layers of eroding antifouling will eventually build up.

There are blisters where water is trapped under a bubble of paint — usually diagnosed by it being easy to pop. If you suspect the blisters are osmosis, get them checked out by an expert. Scroll down the page for details.

PBO tested the various methods out on the bottom of Gallant a Sigma Owner Paul Fenner, with plans for a season of racing this year, wanted to know the best method to remove the old paint.

Scraping is the cheapest way to take paint off. But which is the best scraper to use? Sharpened on a grinding wheel and with the corners ground off, the flat-bladed scraper was good for lifting flakes of paint off. But for heavy-duty scraping it had a tendency to dig in and try to gouge the gel coat. An advantage is that you have three scraping surfaces to work with, which gives you extra time before it needs sharpening with a file. But it still needed frequent sharpening.

The Bahco scraper uses a reversible tungsten-carbide blade. It was so sharp it shaved the paint off unless you got the blade right underneath the paint layer, and its uber-sharp edges had a tendency to bite into the paint. But it was probably the most effective. Larger versions have a knob on top for two-handed work that allows you to put a lot of force into it. The tungsten-carbide blade stayed sharp for longer than those of the triangular scraper. It should make the job less messy and dusty.

Scraping is quick but very labour intensive. The Bahco was the best, but the triangular scraper was effective — just keep those blades sharp! Round the corners off the blades with a file or on a grinding wheel. This will stop them digging into the gel coat. Keep the blade sharp with a file or change the blades regularly. Hacking away with a blunt blade is just a waste of your energy. Yards like you to clean up after yourself. Lay garden fleece, as used for protecting plants from frost, on the ground first.

Water drains through, but dust and scrapings are left behind. At the end of the day you can bundle everything up and throw it away. This product is specifically formulated for removing antifouling.

He goes to say that if leaving it overnight a covering of cling film stops the solvent from evaporating and keeps it moist overnight. We tried scraping after 10 minutes, and the Interstrip had eaten away at the first two layers of paint. We found the best tool was in fact a plastic scraper of the type used to apply filler. Leaving the stripper to work for 10 minutes each time, we got down to the primer after three applications. The Interstrip will leave the primer untouched, ready for the new coat of antifouling.

The tin recommends cleaning up any remaining antifouling with Thinners No3 — which worked but also started to remove the primer underneath. Finally a quick wet sand prepared the surface for the new antifouling. Left the primer intact beneath the paint. Removall is environmentally friendly and safe on your skin. Depending on temperature, you leave it to work for hours.

After four hours it had softened the top layer of paint, but nothing underneath, so we applied more and left it overnight. In the morning, the paint had begun to lift, so we scraped it off with a plastic scraper. It took off all the paint down to the primer. A further application would have revealed the epoxy coating on top of the gel coat. It was viscous enough to not drip when applied. The instructions say it can be simply blasted off with a pressure- washer.

Environmentally friendly. Marine Strip is sold in most chandleries. It requires 12 hours at least to eat through antifouling, so we applied it and came back the next day. When applying, it was viscous enough not to drip. The instructions say to wait until the paint changes colour.