On Apr 13, 11:28 pm, Bruce in Bangkok wrote:
This is what I had suspected, although an article in Practical Boat
Owner alleged that one boat hadn't scrubbed the bottom in ten years.

I think something else must be going on with that one. Certainly
there is a lot of copper in the paint. Burnished up my boat's bottom
looked like an old pot. But, copper isn't very good against the soft
stuff and once there is even a light coating of that other things
colonize on top of it... On a racing boat where the bottom is buffed
every weekend I'm sure Copperbot would be great but I can't see it
working if never scrubbed. It certainly didn't work for me.

I watched a video of the stuff being applied and it is literally just
epoxy and copper dust. They even tell you to keep stirring the can
while you are rolling it on. It is also a minimum of four coats --
sort of a modern day copper sheeting.

Yeah, I had it professionally applied by the local dealer and they did
all that. I've even seen a copper sheathing system advertised.
However, traditionally copper sheeting is to keep the worms out; I
don't think they've evolved to eat glass and plastic yet. Fresh
copper seems to be ok anti-fouling but it doesn't last.

At the moment I am leaning toward the Jotun ..

I've head pretty good things about the Jotun ablatives, too, but
haven't used them myself.

-- Tom.

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:11:59 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Apr 13, 11:28 pm, Bruce in Bangkok wrote:
This is what I had suspected, although an article in Practical Boat
Owner alleged that one boat hadn't scrubbed the bottom in ten years.

I think something else must be going on with that one. Certainly
there is a lot of copper in the paint. Burnished up my boat's bottom
looked like an old pot. But, copper isn't very good against the soft
stuff and once there is even a light coating of that other things
colonize on top of it... On a racing boat where the bottom is buffed
every weekend I'm sure Copperbot would be great but I can't see it
working if never scrubbed. It certainly didn't work for me.

I watched a video of the stuff being applied and it is literally just
epoxy and copper dust. They even tell you to keep stirring the can
while you are rolling it on. It is also a minimum of four coats --
sort of a modern day copper sheeting.

Yeah, I had it professionally applied by the local dealer and they did
all that. I've even seen a copper sheathing system advertised.
However, traditionally copper sheeting is to keep the worms out; I
don't think they've evolved to eat glass and plastic yet. Fresh
copper seems to be ok anti-fouling but it doesn't last.

At the moment I am leaning toward the Jotun ..

I've head pretty good things about the Jotun ablatives, too, but
haven't used them myself.

-- Tom.

I met Sonny Levi (google for more information) with the last boat he
built. It was a very 1930's looking motor sailer built in India and
copper sheathed. Sonny told me that the copper worked all right as
long as he got the bottom scrubbed once a month. I watched them clean
the bottom one time and they were using those metal pot cleaners that
look like a handful of lathe turnings and were really going at the
bottom.



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