I tried this for 2 years.

The first year it seems to work great. The second year it was a
failure. Upon analysis, I believe that it worked the first year
because we did two long distance cruises for over 2 months of the
sailing season. The second year was just normal 2-4 days at a time
and a week's vacation.

ONE CAUTION: I did find that the pepper caused the bottom paint to be
very rough and slowed the boat probably 1/4+ knot. Application was
also very hard due to the thickened paint and the roller drag. IF I
were to try this again (which I won't) I would thin the paint and also
grind the pepper finer than it is in the container.

I also tried the pepper mixed with Desitin and smeared onthe prop and
shaft. Same results as for the bottom in the two years tested.

Rich


Jeff wrote:

Mic wrote:
...

"
From: John Rose Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 To:
Subject: Antifouling Boat Paints

A local fisherman's and yachtsman's practice in the Pacific NW
is to add cayenne pepper to anti-fouling paint, Keeps slime and other
stuff from fouling the bottom. Add about 1/2 cup per gal. of paint.
Mix right in with the paint before roller application to bottom of
boat. It really works according to those who have tried it, and also
boatyard employees. We recently did the bottom of a Santana 525 with
this method. We used Pettit Trinidad SR bottom paint.

Whenever I hear this I wonder why it isn't done by the paint makers,
who would certainly look for any competitive edge.

Are they afraid of lawsuits from people adding bottom paint to their
chili?