Anti-fouling

Sorry if this has been covered already (I looked back through the titles for a couple of pages and didn't spot it )....

I've trailered my boat all season but want to put it on a mooring next year. Its never been moored before (L&R since new) and the Fibreglass hull is as new, never anti-fouled.

Now as a novice, I've been warned to anti-foul it before I moor it - fair enough, but where do I start??!
Is it a paint or can it be sprayed on?
Will it not destroy the look of the hull when its out of the water?
Can you see the 'brush-marks' in the paint? How long does the coat last?
What types are available & what colours??

Any help at all would be useful guys, as I want to try and get this done over the next week or so, before the 'bite' comes in to the weather...
Cheers.

if your boat is in the water all the time antifouling is an important safety issue,
otherwise you will end up with the amazon rainforest growing on it. you will get
dramatic variations in planing ability and speed / revs

there are different types for slow boats and fast boats which need a harder non eroding design.
you might need a primer the first time you apply, instructions are on the tins

it will take about ten mins to put it on with a small roller

you can get white or grey if you want it to look pretty

just one more answer, paint it on immediately before you launch so if the boat
is going in in the spring, don't put it on till then, its all on the tin in any marine shop

Spot on from John! Not the simplest of jobs!
What craft is she? It is important to get the plimsoll line right, the water line. Many put the boat in for a couple of days and they get the line from this. If someone else has the same style boat you could get your line from this instead.

Be sure you have the "mooring" thing tought out. Stripping gear from the boat each time, paddling out and back in a punt and drawing fuel can be tougher work than launching and retrieving.

For fast planing boats, you will probably need a hard, non-eroding anti-foul - International Interspeed, or similar. Coppercoat is really good but very expensive! You will probably need to 'key' the hull before putting on the anti-foul; making lots of scratches on your pristine hull

The thing about antifouling, once it's on, there is no going back (without a lot of grief) . Could you manage an alternative - taking the boat out every month or so to give it a pressure wash?

Good points lads. Unless you have a big boat when you can lock you gear on board, it can be a bit of a pain as Jim mentioned. Also the Antifoul will reduce the resale value a little.

Kev

one other thing to watch for, standard antifoul cannot be
painted on aluminium outdrive or outboard, they say it might
cause electolytic corrosion, there's a special version called trilux
safe for aluminium

Thanks for the reply, lads....
Got me wondering now!!

It's a warrior 165 with a 70hp. No probs marking the waterline, she's MANKY when I retrieve it after being up the Slaney river....! What would be the consequences of going above the waterline?

Maybe its not such a good idea after all then... Its easy enough to retrieve I suppose (not every day though!!) so I suppose I could leave her on the mooring for a month/two at a time, then remove for a good powerwashing?
How fast does this algae stuff grow and if I didn't anti-foul, how often would be recommended to powerwash?

(Also curious why anti-fouling would reduce the resale value?)
Thanks.

Antifouling tends to reduce resale value because it's hard to get off if you don't want it, and you might not want it because you have to redo it every so often and it's not cheap - you'll be looking at around 150-200 euro for a single coat of Interspeed (although that was a couple of years ago...). If you do get it off, you will have to re-do the gel coat 'cos you've scratched the hell out of it to key the surface for the antifoul. Also, a prospective buyer will wonder if the antifoul is covering up a bodged repair job.

Growth depends on conditions, water temp and the surface in question - the smoother and cleaner the surface, the less growth. I suspect you'd get away with a scrub and powerwash every 4-6 weeks in the summer.....

Going above the water line looks ugly.