Has anyone experience with anti fouling paints for cruising sailboats
that are in the water 100% of the time in tropical waters. Like most
cruisers we sail some of the time but the boat sits there a lot.

Before the demise of TBT paints I used Jotun HB-66 and got 3 years
plus out of a paint job. Since there is no more TBT I have talked to
everyone I meet that has painted their boats recently and I get a
uniform "it ain't no good" response to everyone, no matter what paint
they used. Cheap stuff or the top of the line International paints the
answer seems to be the same.

As I have two boats to paint in the next few months if anyone has any
positive experience with legal anti fouling paints I would be really
glad to hear about them.

I can still get old fashion copper bottom paint here in Thailand and
unless someone tells me about something that really works I think I'm
going to go with the old fashioned stuff. It worked pretty good 40
years ago and it should work pretty good today, which is better then
the reports I've been getting on the new expensive stuff. To quote an
old Aussie I know, "if you gotta scrub it every month you might as
well use barn paint".

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(Note:remove underscores
from address for reply)

On Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:28:08 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Has anyone experience with anti fouling paints for cruising sailboats
that are in the water 100% of the time in tropical waters. Like most
cruisers we sail some of the time but the boat sits there a lot.

I have a cruising trawler that is in the water all year, of which
about 8 months are tropical. I'm using Interlux Micron Optima which
was highly rated by Practical Sailor for tropical usage. The paint is
doing a great job.

Check your gmail account for more info.

"Bruce in Bangkok" wrote in message
...
Has anyone experience with anti fouling paints for cruising sailboats
that are in the water 100% of the time in tropical waters. Like most
cruisers we sail some of the time but the boat sits there a lot.

Before the demise of TBT paints I used Jotun HB-66 and got 3 years
plus out of a paint job. Since there is no more TBT I have talked to
everyone I meet that has painted their boats recently and I get a
uniform "it ain't no good" response to everyone, no matter what paint
they used. Cheap stuff or the top of the line International paints the
answer seems to be the same.

As I have two boats to paint in the next few months if anyone has any
positive experience with legal anti fouling paints I would be really
glad to hear about them.

I can still get old fashion copper bottom paint here in Thailand and
unless someone tells me about something that really works I think I'm
going to go with the old fashioned stuff. It worked pretty good 40
years ago and it should work pretty good today, which is better then
the reports I've been getting on the new expensive stuff. To quote an
old Aussie I know, "if you gotta scrub it every month you might as
well use barn paint".

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(Note:remove underscores
from address for reply)

Ask at your local paint or hardware store. There is a mold inhibitor made
for exterior house paints. It contains TBT. You can use it as an additive
with a good, copper-based, epoxy paint such as Petit Trinidad SR. It
actually works better than the original TBT paints such as Tri-Lux. The
brand name is DI-ALL liquid mildewcide. It comes in 1.1 oz bottles one of
which is to be mixed with a gallon of paint. I use 4 bottles to a gallon
since the active ingredient tributyltin (bis oxide) is listed as 25% of the
one ounce. I'm going on five years of cruising and mooring with a bottom of
eight coats of Trinidad and it's not dead yet though it needs a good
scrubbing every three months or so.

Unfortunately, it seems DI-ALL is difficult or impossible to find anymore in
the US but I anticipated that and purchased 36 bottles about ten years ago
($5.49 each) back when it was readily available. It wouldn't surprise me if,
in a backwoods like Thailand, it was still readily available.

Wilbur Hubbard

On Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:17:10 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:28:08 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Has anyone experience with anti fouling paints for cruising sailboats
that are in the water 100% of the time in tropical waters. Like most
cruisers we sail some of the time but the boat sits there a lot.

I have a cruising trawler that is in the water all year, of which
about 8 months are tropical. I'm using Interlux Micron Optima which
was highly rated by Practical Sailor for tropical usage. The paint is
doing a great job.

Check your gmail account for more info.

Got your email and replied.

Two questions: What percent of the time since you applied the paint
have you been underway and do you scrub the bottom at all?

I ask this because from what I read most of the new paints are self
polishing or ablutive and if you are always moving then they seem to
work but if you stay at anchor very long they don't. The Aussie I
mentioned painted his bottom 3 months ago and spent the time since at
anchor except for one trip to Malaysia and back - say 250 miles. He
tells me that he has almost as many barnacles on the bottom as he did
when he went in the yard.

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(Note:remove underscores
from address for reply)

On Wed, 5 Dec 2007 15:14:48 -0500, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:


"Bruce in Bangkok" wrote in message
.. .
Has anyone experience with anti fouling paints for cruising sailboats
that are in the water 100% of the time in tropical waters. Like most
cruisers we sail some of the time but the boat sits there a lot.

Before the demise of TBT paints I used Jotun HB-66 and got 3 years
plus out of a paint job. Since there is no more TBT I have talked to
everyone I meet that has painted their boats recently and I get a
uniform "it ain't no good" response to everyone, no matter what paint
they used. Cheap stuff or the top of the line International paints the
answer seems to be the same.

As I have two boats to paint in the next few months if anyone has any
positive experience with legal anti fouling paints I would be really
glad to hear about them.

I can still get old fashion copper bottom paint here in Thailand and
unless someone tells me about something that really works I think I'm
going to go with the old fashioned stuff. It worked pretty good 40
years ago and it should work pretty good today, which is better then
the reports I've been getting on the new expensive stuff. To quote an
old Aussie I know, "if you gotta scrub it every month you might as
well use barn paint".

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(Note:remove underscores
from address for reply)

Ask at your local paint or hardware store. There is a mold inhibitor made
for exterior house paints. It contains TBT. You can use it as an additive
with a good, copper-based, epoxy paint such as Petit Trinidad SR. It
actually works better than the original TBT paints such as Tri-Lux. The
brand name is DI-ALL liquid mildewcide. It comes in 1.1 oz bottles one of
which is to be mixed with a gallon of paint. I use 4 bottles to a gallon
since the active ingredient tributyltin (bis oxide) is listed as 25% of the
one ounce. I'm going on five years of cruising and mooring with a bottom of
eight coats of Trinidad and it's not dead yet though it needs a good
scrubbing every three months or so.

Unfortunately, it seems DI-ALL is difficult or impossible to find anymore in
the US but I anticipated that and purchased 36 bottles about ten years ago
($5.49 each) back when it was readily available. It wouldn't surprise me if,
in a backwoods like Thailand, it was still readily available.

Wilbur Hubbard


I can buy what is reputed to be pure TBT from a chemical shop in
Penang but people that have tried it, mixing from small amounts to
very large amounts, all reported that they had problems in (1) getting
it mixed into the paint, and (2) in some cases the paint didn't
harden.

If I read your post correctly you are mixing TBT to paint at 0.78
percent TBT which is far lower then the cases I heard reported, the
people that had the problems used as high as 10% by volume.

I haven't specifically asked at a paint shop about an anti fungus/mold
additive but I do know that the better quality latex house paints
advertize "no fungus", which is a problem here in the rainy season,
and their stuff does hold up.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(Note:remove underscores
from address for reply)

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

On Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:28:08 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Has anyone experience with anti fouling paints for cruising sailboats
that are in the water 100% of the time in tropical waters. Like most
cruisers we sail some of the time but the boat sits there a lot.

I have a cruising trawler that is in the water all year, of which
about 8 months are tropical. I'm using Interlux Micron Optima which
was highly rated by Practical Sailor for tropical usage. The paint is
doing a great job.


How often to you scrape or clean the hull while "down there"? When we had
the Navigator in Jupiter, FL for a couple of years we had a diver do in the
water hull cleaning once a month.

Eisboch

On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:37:32 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Two questions: What percent of the time since you applied the paint
have you been underway and do you scrub the bottom at all?


Our boat is on the move a lot for 5 or 6 months of the year, and much
less frequently the other 6 months. On average we have the bottom
cleaned every 3 or 4 months.

I ask this because from what I read most of the new paints are self
polishing or ablutive and if you are always moving then they seem to
work but if you stay at anchor very long they don't. The Aussie I
mentioned painted his bottom 3 months ago and spent the time since at
anchor except for one trip to Malaysia and back - say 250 miles. He
tells me that he has almost as many barnacles on the bottom as he did
when he went in the yard.

There is no excuse for barnacles with good paint, properly applied.
Something is wrong.

On Thu, 6 Dec 2007 04:07:01 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:

How often to you scrape or clean the hull while "down there"? When we had
the Navigator in Jupiter, FL for a couple of years we had a diver do in the
water hull cleaning once a month.

With a good ablative paint a light sponging off is all that is needed
except around the waterline. We hire a diver every 3 months or so,
mostly to check/change the zincs.

On Thu, 6 Dec 2007 04:07:01 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:


"Wayne.B" wrote in message
.. .

On Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:28:08 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Has anyone experience with anti fouling paints for cruising sailboats
that are in the water 100% of the time in tropical waters. Like most
cruisers we sail some of the time but the boat sits there a lot.

I have a cruising trawler that is in the water all year, of which
about 8 months are tropical. I'm using Interlux Micron Optima which
was highly rated by Practical Sailor for tropical usage. The paint is
doing a great job.


How often to you scrape or clean the hull while "down there"? When we had
the Navigator in Jupiter, FL for a couple of years we had a diver do in the
water hull cleaning once a month.

Eisboch

Using Jotun HB-66, which contained TBT and is no longer sold I usually
got the bottom wiped off every three or four months. There would be a
few small barnacles along the water line and on the top of the rudder
but the bulk of the hull would be clean of all but slime.

In Singapore, where the water must be like liquid fertilizer, the
chaps with the flashy motor yachts have the bottom cleaned twice a
month. But, of course they all have full time boat boys too.....


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(Note:remove underscores
from address for reply)

On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:14:12 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:37:32 +0700, Bruce in Bangkok
wrote:

Two questions: What percent of the time since you applied the paint
have you been underway and do you scrub the bottom at all?


Our boat is on the move a lot for 5 or 6 months of the year, and much
less frequently the other 6 months. On average we have the bottom
cleaned every 3 or 4 months.

I ask this because from what I read most of the new paints are self
polishing or ablutive and if you are always moving then they seem to
work but if you stay at anchor very long they don't. The Aussie I
mentioned painted his bottom 3 months ago and spent the time since at
anchor except for one trip to Malaysia and back - say 250 miles. He
tells me that he has almost as many barnacles on the bottom as he did
when he went in the yard.

There is no excuse for barnacles with good paint, properly applied.
Something is wrong.

Agreed and I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to use as literally
everyone I have talked to over here is not having good luck with the
post TBT paints.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(Note:remove underscores
from address for reply)