On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:20:03 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

On 2008-04-14 08:30:38 -0400, Bruce in Bangkok said:

The last time I was in Penang and talked to a chemical shop there the
owner said "I'll keep selling TBT as long as the Malaysian Navy uses
TBT based anti fouling".. So you are probably correct. unfortunately I
can't buy it.

You can't befriend someone in the Malaysian Navy?

I probably could if I spent some time in Lamout, the west coast naval
base. Interestingly I met a chap this morning that had a mate who was
in the boat painting business who had some detailed information.

The problems with TBT are, other then it is banned in anti fouling
paints, by international treaty, it is a pretty potent poison, it
doesn't mix with all bottom paints and its reaction varies from paint
to paint.

My present thoughts are that I'll probably go with one of the modern
self polishing paints as I don't want to go through all the trials and
tribulations of painting the bottom only to discover that the paint
didn't get hard; or it all falls off.

I do have plans to mix enough paint to do an 8 ft. dinghy. Half with
TBT and half with copper based anti fouling paint. Just to see what
happens.

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)