Parallax wrote:
Almost went sailing last night but was sidetracked by my 7 yr old who
wanted to get a pumpkin. Halloween takes precedence. Probably have
to carve it tonite and get pumpkin slime all over which leads
to.......

Useless idea #3739

Biofilm antifoulants

A genetically engineered slime mold that adheres to your boat bottom
and releases an antibiotic (sorta like the penicillin mold) that
suppresses competition (other fouling). Only problem is how to get it
to only grow on your boat and not go everywhere else. It would be
self replicating so would not have to be re-applied yearly if you
didnt haul out.

Actually, not all that bad, but you want whatever it is to not like
to consume gelcoat, for instance... or else it leaches some trace
element (concentrated within the paint) that it is completely
dependant upon.

The problem, of course, is that you must find a microbial that won't
evolve, won't conjugate, etc, so that it doesn't pick up new methods
of reproduction or independance of the "paint".

Another point: you don't need the antifouling much whilst under
way, so it only needs to hang out while you're at anchor/mooring or
in a slip. It'll re-establish itself (perhaps w/ help) each time
you stop.

Hmmm... make something that will allow things to grow but that'll
just peel off right away?

I suspect nanotechnology will be available before we can build up
(evolve/graft/whatever) any kind of microbial to do the job.

--
John R. Campbell Speaker to Machines
"Grace is sufficient so Joy was let go." - Heather L. Campbell
"Faith manages ... even though she didn't get promoted" - me
Why OS X? Because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows