UPDATE: Our Coppercoat Application…Disaster or Success?

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Coppercoat antifouling…or even conventional antifouling…short term, should work at least to some extent to prevent marine growth on a sailboat hull, right? After 6 or 7 weeks, there should be no barnacles or build up of marine growth, no matter what kind of nutrient rich water your boat is sitting in, and no matter how little movement the boat makes, right? Well, we have been in the water for 7 weeks now…this should give us some idea if our Coppercoat application has failed or succeeded. 7 Years will tell us even more!

Patrick was feeling confident that although we strayed from the Coppercoat application instructions, that the hull would be in good shape, free from hard growth. I was a little concerned that we might have a failed Coppercoat application story for you. At the very least we would be able to tell you why the Coppercoat failed. Everything you read about Coppercoat says do NOT stray at all from the instructions. We certainly DID stray from the instructions, mostly out of necessity to get the results we knew were required to make the Coppercoat application successful in the end. Patrick isn’t one to follow directions blindly just because his wife tells him to…he uses sense and knowledge when he strays.

What brown water to go look at a hull in…what lurks below?

So despite being in very brown mucky water here in Richards Bay, South Africa, with bull sharks, crocodiles and hippos not too far away, Patrick decided that before we sail this boat around the Cape of Good Hope starting this weekend, he should take a look, or at least a feel of the bottom of our sailboat to make sure it’s not encrusted with barnacles or other serious marine growth. This which would make for a a slow and potentially dangerous rounding, not to mention, put a lot of strain on the engine if we had to motor. While he was down under the boat, he’d give it a wipe. Better to have crocodiles, hippos, a sinus infection, and a not so friendly bull shark, than a hull encrusted with barnacles for an already risky passage like this one!

Patrick going in to the water in SriLanka to do our monthly scrubbing of the hull

We were both nervous as he got in to the water to clean the bottom of Brick House. I kept thinking, what if the Coppercoat has failed!?! What a nightmare that would be! We would probably have to haul her out and choose another kind of antifouling paint to put on her hull. And what if a Bull shark visits Patrick…will he know who the boss is? I think Patrick’s main worry though, was the sinus infection.

As he slipped in to the water that was nearly as warm as the hot African air, I prayed, please…do NOT be a failed Coppercoat application. SV Britican’s hull was growing serious barnacles in less time that this. And this water grows barnacles in a week on many boats here.

So in he went. He did have scrapers, and wire brushes at the ready…just in case of bad news, ready for the typical disappointment that bottom paints usually present, even in this early stage.

After 15 or 20 minutes at the end of the Seabreathe hookah unit, he surfaced for the report. I was ready to hand him the scraper, and watch him dissapear back under the water for round 2 of many, per usual.

He handed me the sponge, and jumped out of the water with a giant smile on his face! First time ever…he didn’t need these harsh tools…the soft sponge was all he needed!

Here is his report for weeks 7, word for word:

“We have been sitting in this very nutrient rich estuary water for 7 weeks now. Part of the prep for departing in a few days for East London, then onto Cape Town, was to go into this mucky estuary water, with 4 inches of visibility, and give the hull a wipe with a large, flat, soft sponge. I worked more by feel. What little I could see and what I could feel, Coppercoat is appearing to be working as it should. There were 3 little barnacles on the hull, at the tight junction where the drive shaft enters the hull and I wasn’t able to really apply the Coppercoat very well. Actually I was happy to see and feel those barnacles as it shows what could have happened if the Coppercoat was a failure on the rest of the hull. The wipe with the sponge took a fraction of the time it would have taken to clean traditional antifouling free of sediments“.

What a relief that we possibly have a Coppercoat success, as opposed to the Coppercoat failure that I was a bit nervous about. The 3 barnacles on the area that he had a more difficult time treating, was a good comparison of what could have been a universal problem. He described to me under later questioning that from what he could see from 4 inches away, the hull looked to be in various shades of blue and green which indicates a successful Coppercoat application to me!

We could not be happier, to see that we are at least off to a good start. Perhaps the extra sanding will shorten its life span…but if it works for 2 years we will be thrilled. If it works for 5 or 10, we will be ecstatic!

Be sure to subscribe here to get updates on our Coppercoat Application Failure or Success as time goes by. We promise not to give a Coppercoat review every 6 weeks 😉 We are just excited to report all is well so far. Please feel free to write to us and ask us how it’s going if we forget to report the results over time!

Here is the Original Application Video in case you haven’t seen it yet. Only time will tell how the Coppercoat works longterm.

How we strayed from the Coppercoat Instructions

Cleaning a Sailboat Hull Underwater; How do the Pros do it so Fast?!?

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Cleaning a sailboat Hull, underwater, and the tools that you need:

Cruisers around the world have different ways of cleaning their hull. Different tools, different process, and techniques. But how do the professionals do it? The ones who are paid to do it and want to do it quickly and thoroughly, with as little setup time as possible, so they can clean many boats in one day.

Guest speaker Hank Schmitt from Offshore Passage Opportunities, a professional diver and sailboat captain for decades, demonstrates how he cleans the bottom of his Swan Sailboat “Avocation”. He shows what kind of tools to use, and how abrasive they should be. He shows how he uses a scuba tank, but leaves it on deck and uses it more like a hookah, but without any time consuming setup. He shows how he freedives, in a simple methodical way to get the whole hull done quickly.

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Patrick Childress then shows a short excerpt from a video he did a year ago demonstrating how we use a Sea Breathe Hookah/underwater breathing Apparatus to clean our cruising sailboat as we sail around the world. To clean our bottom. It’s remarkably similar…but different too! Be sure to watch both videos. The link to Patrick’s older video is in the video below.

No matter what kind of antifouling paint you put on, including the most expensive antifouling paint, to Coppercoat epoxy, scrubbing the bottom of your sailboat is something you have to get used to doing, unless you want to be paying someone to clean your hull every month or so.  Boat owners, you can save money by cleaning your sailboats bottom yourself!

Learn some new tricks in the video below!

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Whale Strike on a Sailboat -What If you hit a whale while sailing??

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It is actually extremely rare that a whale intentionally sinks a sailboat. But an accidental collision with a whale can leave a sailboat damaged and cause the loss of its rudder. It does seem though, that there is an increase in incidences of sailboats hitting whales. Part of that reason could be due to conservation measures and the increased numbers of whales but also, the increased numbers of sailboats passing through whale territory.

So why don’t whales just get out of the way, whether a ship or sailboat. There is speculation that whales, being the biggest thing in the ocean, they grow up never having to change course for anything. They just don’t know to move. Our collision with the young humpback whale, at the beginning of this video, is a very good example of that. That whale could have easily avoided us, but it chose not to. That might have been a very good learning experience for the young whale, that not all large, rounded things in the ocean are as soft and friendly as mother. That learning experience, just might save its life one day.

One would think that a whale should hear the approach of a sailboat. Apparently, it is a very noisy ocean down there and becoming more noisy with the increase of ships, fishing boats and all sorts of surface craft, but also, military submarines. Maybe, in some extremely noisy areas close to civilization, the whale might not hear the vessel coming. However it could be well worth while, for a sailboat in whale territory, to create noise by playing the stereo, which can be heard through the hull, turn on the depth sounder, especially one of the new Raymarine depth sounders that uses a sweep of frequencies, not just the standard 50 or 200kz, or even turn on the engine. A diesel engine is very noisy, underwater.

When in whale territory, it would be good to slow down. In some whale feeding areas, ships are restricted to a speed of no more than 10 knots. Many sailboats would be fortunate to go that fast but the slower the better to give whales, and the sailboat, more opportunity to avoid each other.  

Know before you sail, if your boat will be in a whale traffic area, subscribe to whale alerts for your particular area. Unfortunately these are concentrated in the USA, but a google for something like “Whale Tracking In South Africa” should give you some information to be aware of.

Try to travel during the day, so you can see whales on the surface better. Some whale species spend a lot of time at night, resting on the surface.

Finally, as if all that wasn’t bad enough, in their migrations, and search for food, many whales spend much of their lives in precisely those waters that are the most dangerous for them, often frequenting both commercial shipping lanes and recreational hot spots, taking the same route that migrating cruisers follow.

So keep a good lookout. Make a lot of noise, and try not to hit any whales, OK?

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