On Apr 13, 8:07 pm, Bruce in Bangkok wrote:
At the moment there seem to be three choices (1) Jotun self polishing
paint in various grades depending on boat speed; (2) Chugoku self
polishing, again in different grades and (3) a copper and epoxy mix
that used to be called "CopperBot" but I now believe has a different
name, that is supposed to last ten years or more.

Now, to cut to the chase. Does anybody have actual experience with
current anti fouling paints in tropical waters?

I put CopperBot on my boat in 2001 and then sanded it down and put
Devoe ABC on over it in 2002. Copperbot makes a nice barrier coat.
The good news was that it would stand up to serious sanding the bad
news was that it needed it all the time. Unless you dive the boat
weekly I wouldn't go that route. Pretty much all the serious tropical
cruisers I know use ablatives and most get 18-24 months out of a multi-
coat application. I've used a couple of different Devoe products have
done a few seasons with Interlux. I'm currently into my second season
with Micron Extra. IME, the ablative copper paints work very well for
3-4 months and then get dramatically less effective. However, they
are really easy to clean. By the end of two seasons you'll typically
be down to almost no paint and any that's left will have very little
anti-fouling ability... The Interlux products are more expensive than
the Devoe stuff that I was getting in New Zealand but not notably
better.

-- Tom.