Recent Forum Postings

Pedro

Live aboard - Caribbean

Piota

North Scotland

Our experience: 4 coats of 'Copperbot' (now called Coppercoat) on newly finished epoxy have now completed ten seasons. It was one of the best things we have ever done for the boat. Copper has given good service on the hull, needing only a pressure wash on lifting, and a very light hand-rub over with a piece of 600 wet/dry paper before launch (less than an hour for a 10m hull) to remove some weathered oxide and 'reactivate' the coating.

Vyv cox
regular


Reged: 16/05/2001
Posts: 4356
Loc: North Wales, sailing in Mediterranean

My keel has been Coppercoated (actually Copperbot but these seem to be the same thing) for the past 10 years. In that time I have never had fouling on it, never sanded it back and basically ignored it. The hull, conventionally antifouled, has attracted all sorts of fouling. Rust has now penetrated beneath the keel coating in a big way, necessitating grit blasting and recoating with epoxy. I have bought more Coppercoat for the antifouling.

Macd

Peel, Isle of Man.

I've used Coppercoat on two boats and have been pleased with the results. It does pretty much what it says on the...er...plastic bottle.
In UK waters it seems to work much as well as a good conventional antifoul. So, as other posts note, it needs pressure-washing at lift-out and perhaps lightly abrading before lift-in. The attraction is more than financial. Who wants to apply antifoul annually if they don't have to?

PCUK

Devon

Copperbot (now called Coppercoat) eight years on and still going strong. Light abrade with a scrub-all once a year and off it goes again. Would never use annual rubbish again.

Dhowdodger

Arabian Gulf

Have used Coppercoat for 11 years now, was originally called Copperbot, after 8 years I applied an extra coat. Great stuff, as the previous post mentioned just a jet-wash and light sand and your back in business. Incidentally my boat is in year round.

Doffy

Suffolk

Coppercoat is a two pack epoxy with the hefty amount of copper in, I did a Colvic 28 nine plus years ago and its still spot on, took the hull down to bare GRP lightly sanded 3 coats of gelshield and two coats of Copper coat.

grafozz
regular


Reged: 11/01/2004
Posts: 115
Loc: kefalonia ,greece

yes anton, i use copper /bot/coat a/f in the ionian and although 10 years old this year was still working fairly well. i have just re-done it this week and expect it to be even better . i have been very satisfied with it in greece i cant see how the temperature has anything to do with its effectiveness ? copper oxide is copper oxide at whatever temperature its at ...

great product no problems after 4 years, and we dont come out for a spray off - all you doubters eat your hearts out - 10 - 15 years between anti fouls must be good news - best £600 spent on boating ever.

Crianza

East Coast

Crianza was antifouled with Coppercoat from new and is now in her third season. I agree with other posters - it works. The boat stays in the water all year long and I dry the boat out once a year (at the start of the season) and powerwash off the hull. It usually has light slime and some minor weed around the water line. Otherwise it is as good as new. Its quite tough stuff so it resists scuffs and the occasional contact with floating objects.

gianenrico
Northern Tyrrenian Sea

Jonny H

Fleetwood

We just bought a boat with Copperbot (now called Coppercoat) - again 10 years old.

The owners said its fine still. They have a small tub of mix which they use to each winter to patch up areas which are very thin. They then just rub the whole hull over with a brillo pad.

We did the same thing (we bought her out of the water) - touched in the parts the surveyor had scraped with some more Coppercoat - and launched her. Seems ok so far.

The one thing I would think about was when to rub the hull over (ours was done in December and not launched until March - I think this is too long and it may loose effectiveness - next year I will give her a good rub down the day she goes in)


Jonny

bilbobaggins

Aqua Sulis

I helped friends apply Copperbot (now called Coppercoat) to their 45' hull three years ago, and they've been doing 'The Atlantic Circuit' ever since. They've had to wipe off slime here and there, and took opportunity of helpers to 'burnish' a bit. No problems reported at all.

Stubale
new user


Reged: 11/11/2007
Posts: 3
Loc: Chichester

Mine was put on in 1999 and still comes up like new. Nice and smooth...

No real growth in a season, certainly not worse than traditional antifoul

In terms of after care, all I do is a quick flick over with some wet and dry every other year to re-excite it. It Seems a lot less work than "normal" anti foul.

Not sure of the economics but I guess if you are looking to keep her for a few years it will pay for itself?... cant harm the resale value either.

Shanty

Scotland - Black Isle

Shanty is now in her seventh season since being Copper coated. It’s still going strong - just needs a quick blast with the pressure washer at crane out to shift a light coat of slime, and a light rub down in the spring before crane in.

A great system - go for it.

Swagman

Mediterranean

We've Coppercoat on our 46 footer - and ours is parked in Mallorca after 6 months cruising the med (with exceptionally warm waters this year) - and bottoms clean as.

weydog

Weymouth UK

I bought a boat in 2003, which had been copperbot'ed (now called Coppercoat) in 1998.

She was lifted and cleaned for survey in 2003 - I didn't see the state of the hull before cleaning -, and again in 2005 (two seasons' worth in Weymouth harbour - shame on me)

Props, rudder and keel which had been painted with conventional antifoul were covered in barnacles and tube worms, and even a rather nice orange sponge, but the hull which had been copperbotted was completely free of any hard fouling - it just had some slimy green algal growth which came off clean with a pressure washer.

Can't say if it will last the ten years, but going strong after seven.

KevB
regular


Reged: 04/07/2001
Posts: 5342
Loc: London

I did it about three years ago on the recommendations of Mr Bale and for once he got something right. I would also recommend it. It does what it says on the tin (or pot and bag.....)

--------------------
Nirvana

scarlett
regular


Reged: 21/12/2002
Posts: 1095
Loc: French Canals 2007 on,

I put mine on in 2002, based in Greece; now in the French canals. A few barnacles for last seven months in salt water but still good. Never abraded.

As to hot weather, the problem that I had was putting it on before the material goes too hard to paint, especially on the side of the hull in the sun. Plan your project with care.

Galadriel

Chichester Harbour

We applied Coppercoat, a DIY application in March of 2005. Coppercoat was applied over two coats of ME100 epoxy coating. The reason for our choice was:

The cost of lift out/relaunch etc plus normal antifouling IS expensive, not to mention all the hard work of applying the stuff.

We wanted to leave the boat in the water all year round, hence the epoxy barrier.

Why chose Coppercoat? Well, a good friend of mine had Coppercoat applied to his new boat professionally two years ago. He had it applied professionally as the boat had to be launched in Feb and the only way to get the boat undercover was to contract out the job. He used Coppercoat as it had worked very well, DIY applied on his previous boat for many years. A good recommendation.

When we put our boat onto the scrubbing piles in Sept there was a little weed at the water line and some slime. The weed was most evident on the bow facing the sun. The slime was much the same we used to get on our Blakes eroding antifoul. 20 minutes or so with a pressure washer had all the slim off, back to a clean hull.

For me it looks like it works. At least this winter there will be no antifouling routine with the associated cost. The whole job, for blasting, ME100 epoxy and the Coppercoat came out at about £1500 for a 35ft boat, plus two days over a weekend for application. If you are lucky enough to have a yard that will lift your boat cheaply, then Coppercoat may not provide much of a saving, but for me the whole exercise will be covered within three years.

09-03-2007, 20:57

sabertooth

Vale of Glamorgan

Hi cascars, I took my mates advice and used Coppercoat and have had no problems with it the 3 yrs it’s been on except for a bit of slime when she has sat for a while. you have to key the hull and taking a sander to your pride and joy is a bit daunting lucky for me she was 2nd hand when I got mine my mates was brand spanking warrior 175

ChrisKaye

Wiltshire

Hi John
Still pleased with it 2 years on, boat is in the water mostly all year round so same again just a blast off with a pressure washer although I used the Sealift in Cowes and it came up great !
Probably have a go with some wet and dry paper to re-activate it again in a couple of years, but def worth it! No nasty scraping and painting each year.

Galadriel
Chichester Harbour

A report in Feb YM by Dick Durham says that the Cuprotect that was applied to 'Powder Monkey', his Contessa 32, has not worked, in fact much slim and weed has also helped barnacles to grow in several areas. This is despite the boat being kept in a fast flowing tidal stream.

Interesting, because I had thought about Cuprotect before using Coppercoat. Whilst in what was recognised as a particularly bad year for fouling, 2 boats including ours that I know of using Coppercoat, only suffered heavy silting plus weed at the water line, this is despite being kept in a marina with brackish water. Not bad seeing that Coppercoat cost me less than a third the price of the Cuprotect.

pessimist

Hauled out at the weekend after fifteen months in the water. This is the first haul out after the application of Coppercoat and I'm impressed. The boat was barely used last year and has (so far) had little use this season. There was no shell fouling, very little slime but some patches of weed fouling. In general I would guess that there was less fouling than in previous years when we had used top of the range conventional anti fouling. As an added bonus the chap who pressure washed her reckoned the fouling was easier to remove than that found on a conventionally antifouled hull - it took him about 30 minutes for a 41 foot hull.

All the usual disclaimers apply - I have no association with the manufacturer or supplier of the product other than as a (so far) satisfied user.

Brightside
Commander

Topic: Hints and Tips from Brightside
    Posted: 14 November 2003 at 19:33

Coppercoat Antifouling. The boat came out after 8 months and was cleaned easily with a hose, deck scrubber and scourer. Only a couple of barnacles. A jet blaster was not needed. A boatyard hand at Cowes told me he loves the stuff because the bottoms are so easy to clean.

Mor Magh

Surrey

Jelly

Member

Country: UK - England

Town: Saltash, Cornwall

Join Date: Sep 2002

Posts: 615

Ken
There are a few of us on here with Coppercoat, I'm one and its brilliant, but you need to add an extra anode to aid those on your engine.
Otherwise hull was clean after 6mths wish I could have said that about the tubes and outdrive leg.
Rgds
James

KUDU
Sub Lieutenant

Posted: 20 September 2006 at 14:53

Mike,

I have just put Coppercoat onto my new 400. The surface was abraded slightly before the boat went into the water to ensure that the copper beads in the epoxy were exposed. After a few days the waterline was green. This is caused by the copper reacting with the water and shows that it is working. If it doesn't change colour at all, I would suggest that not enough copper has been exposed. After 3 weeks in Dartmouth I cannot see any growth.

In the same time our log has stopped working completely. When I took it out (wet!) I found that the whole unit was a writhing mass of life, tiny weed fronds and 1-2 mm long shrimp like beasties. Does any one know of an antifouling compound or medium to stop this?

Geoff

Tonka

Member

Country: UK - Scotland

Occupation: s/e safety boat skip

Join Date: Apr 2004

have Coppercoat on my rib as well in water all year and hull is still clean

jcmmarine
regular


Reged: 07/05/2006
Posts: 657
Loc: Gosport/Europe

I've copperbotted and would certainly recommend.

--------------------
John
Sailing is for fun, Engines are for going places.

Garygee

Member

Country: UK - England

Town: Great Harwood, Lancs

Join Date: Jul 2001

Posts: 626

Hi Robert

I used an epoxy based Coppercoat.

Have read mixed reports about it and it was expensive, but once done thats it for 10 years plus.

Did it, and after 9 months there is zero growth so it looks like it works for me.

Did not do the outdrive which needs cleaning off every month or two. May antifoul this next summer.


Regards Gary