Another advantage is that when you touch the hull you don't get
covered with ablative paint... This all raises a serious question in my
mind as to whether ablative antifouls are that useful -maybe they are
best suited to smaller boats that never really get going fats enough to
displace the slime? Any thoughts?

None comes off but that only means it builds up and you'll be scraping one
year. Your thoughts on ablatives being better suited to smaller boats with
less speed is the opposite of what I would consider the way to go. BTW unless
you have a power boat I don't think going "fast" in any sailboat is fast enough
to remove slime. You gotta wipe it off.
BTW most manufactures do not recomend any thinning of bottom paint.
S/V Express 30 "Ringmaster"
Trains are a winter sport

SAIL LOCO wrote:

Another advantage is that when you touch the hull you don't get
covered with ablative paint... This all raises a serious question in my
mind as to whether ablative antifouls are that useful -maybe they are
best suited to smaller boats that never really get going fats enough to
displace the slime? Any thoughts?

None comes off but that only means it builds up and you'll be scraping one
year.

Not if it's nice and thin and you wet and dry every year back to the
previous paint... By the way I had ablative before and it built up! At
least hard antifoul sands without jamming up the paper all the time.


Your thoughts on ablatives being better suited to smaller boats with
less speed is the opposite of what I would consider the way to go.

Please explain. I would have thought a fast boat would loose the
ablative faster...

BTW unless
you have a power boat I don't think going "fast" in any sailboat is fast enough
to remove slime.

Well that's not what happened. As I said, more than a year has passed
and the thick slime was only present on bits that do not get well
slapped by the sea.

You gotta wipe it off.
BTW most manufactures do not recomend any thinning of bottom paint.

Well, there may be several reasons for that. At the moment the bottom
looks great and the thinner has no effect on adhesion -it may even
improve it as the thinner has aggressive solvents in it. Does it sound
to you like this idea has not been tried before?

Cheers MC

Please explain. I would have thought a fast boat would loose the
ablative faster...

This is what you said:
This all raises a serious question in my
mind as to whether ablative antifouls are that useful -maybe they are
best suited to smaller boats that never really get going fats enough to
displace the slime? Any thoughts?

You didn't say anything about faster boats removing paint. In my opinion
faster boats would do a better job of removing the slime but they would have to
be faster than any sailboat..
S/V Express 30 "Ringmaster"
Trains are a winter sport

SAIL LOCO wrote:

Please explain. I would have thought a fast boat would loose the
ablative faster...

This is what you said:
This all raises a serious question in my

mind as to whether ablative antifouls are that useful -maybe they are
best suited to smaller boats that never really get going fats enough to
displace the slime? Any thoughts?


You didn't say anything about faster boats removing paint. In my opinion
faster boats would do a better job of removing the slime but they would have to
be faster than any sailboat..

I was thinking about the loss of ablative paint leading to the slime
loss. Do you think that happens?

Cheers MC