On 30 Mar 2009 10:31:01 -0500, Dave wrote:

On Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:57:14 +0700, Bruce In Bangkok
said:

A British magazine, Practical Boat Owner, did a test of all the common
yacht anti-fouling paints by painting test strips and placing them in
most of the widely used "yacht" harbors in England and Scotland.

What they discovered was that there is no "best" paint as a paint that
remained fairly growth free in, say a southern English harbor, was
covered by growth in a different, perhaps Northern or Western, harbor.

The final analysis was "go with local knowledge".

That's consistent with what Practical Sailor's test over the years suggest.
Interestingly enough, it seems the fouling is often as bad in New England as
in Florida, and sometimes worse, and different paints are better in one
place than the other.

A friend came up with a novel solution. He talked about wrapping
tarpaulins under the boat and hosing water between the tarps and the
hull to keep a layer of fresh water on the hull. He reckoned that
would keep the barnacles from growing. I don't know that he ever tried
it though.

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)