I had the 'old barge' (as Oz calls her) hauled last week. I had put hard
antifoul on as an experiment last year and was most impressed with its
performance. It was 13 months since she was last out and the growth was
quite small except for the sail drive that had a lot of weed (tin based
antifoul had worn off completely but the acid etch vinyl primer was
still in place). After water blasting to remove the slime, gently wet
and dried entire hull with 240 grit. Washed down with a scriubbing brush
and then applied a new coat of hard antifoul. I decided on another
experiment. I used about 30-40% thinners and rolled with a short pile
roller. The paint went on very fast and because it was very fluid left a
surface that was as smooth as a spray job. Applied three similar coats
on leading edges. Of course the paint layer is thinner than using full
strength but since it's hard antifoul I'm gambling that this thin layer
will be sufficient 'til next year. I also did not use near a whole
gallon which for a 40' boat is most economical (being a Farr she also
has a low wetted area). Anyone else here use a similar strategy? The
water here is very clean so fouling is probably less than in some other
places. I also noticed that when we went out in rough weather the slime
tended to get knocked off the hull by waves so the hard surface doesn't
seem to allow adhesion any worse than the ablative antifoul I used
before. Another advantage is that when you touch the hull you don't get
covered with ablative paint... This all raises a serious question in my
mind as to whether ablative antifouls are that useful -maybe they are
best suited to smaller boats that never really get going fats enough to
displace the slime? Any thoughts?

Cheers MC