Category Archives: Locations

Places around the world

A Coppercoat Failure?

2 Replies

This is such a difficult blog for me to write.  As you know, we spent a lot of money and time applying Coppercoat antifoul (see Coppercoat blog posts part I and part II) to our boat.  We had very high expectations that this product would last a very long time, save us money, and prevent us from hauling out every other year.  Maybe that was the problem?  Our expectations were too high?

The Prologue

We splashed from Norsand Boatyard and went up river to a marina. We stayed at the dock for 5 weeks and when we left, we had no concerns regarding the bottom job.  Why do you ask?

Last season we stayed in the same river for 8 months.  We had lots and lots of soft growth on our Carboline ablative paint.  I mean it looked like a small forest.  However, it easily fell off as soon as the boat started moving.  In fact, we sailed to Great Barrier (35-40nm) and by the time we got there the bottom had no growth!  Cool!

The Difference Between Seasons

As you might recall, last season 2023, had a lot of rain!  It rained at least 4 days a week if not more during the 8 months we were there!  Since we were on a river, the rain would fill the mountains and waterfalls which would push a lot of fresh, cold water down our river.  

However, this season we had very little rain and hot days.  Making the brackish water very warm and stagnant. Evidently this is a breeding ground for barnacles.

The Problem

Matt jumped in the water once we got to our first anchorage. He was completely shocked as our bottom was covered in barnacles.  This just 5 weeks after splashing into the water with fresh Coppercoat.

The barnacles were everywhere on the Coppercoat, on the hulls, on the stern, the bow, the very bottom and the daggerboards.  It was crushing!

Our Experiment

As you might recall, we did a little experiment.  We placed 4 different products on the bottom of our boat to see which would perform better over time.

As a note, Coppercoat cannot be near aluminum so we had to put a different product around the rudder shaft and the sail drive.

  1. Coppercoat on the entire hull
  2. Propspeed on the props.  This product can only go on the props, not on the hulls
  3. Vivid antifoul bottom paint near the rudder shaft (black circle)
  4. Vinyl Antifoul wrap near the sail drive (black square)

What was the outcome after the first 5 weeks?

The yellow propspeed had zero growth.  No soft or hard growth.  It was super clean!

The Vinyl antifoul, which we applied as sort of a joke, as we thought this would be the first to disintegrate or fall apart.  But this only had some soft growth which fell off with a light touch of your finger.

Vivid antifoul paint was covered in barnacles. 

And the Coppercoat was covered.

What Did we Do?

For those of you who know me this will come as no surprise.  I sent videos and photos to the marina (just to give them a heads up), to the yard (again a heads up and sought advice), and to the manufacturer of Coppercoat.

There are 5-6 marinas on this same river.  We know of several boats, that stayed at various marinas on this river that had similar problems. Some had antifoul paint and some Coppercoat – all the same results with tons of barnacles.

After a lot of back and forth, the manufacturer did nothing other than provide some insights.  I thought I’d share them here with the hopes that it would be helpful for other cruisers who have Coppercoat.

Insights

Assuming the Coppercoat was applied correctly, which we believe it was (again refer to our Coppercoat blog posts part I and part II)  and compare the application process to that which is recommended by Coppercoat).  

  • Standard antifoul paint starts off at full strength (containing the maximum biocide content when new) and gradually wears down (it grows weaker as the biocides leach away). Making is less effective the older it becomes (which we have seen first hand).  
  • Coppercoat when freshly applied is a relatively mild antifoul. It becomes stronger week by week.   Commonly, a two-year old treatment performs better than a two-week old treatment. This is because it takes time for the epoxy at the outer surface of the treatment to break down and allow the release of the copper.  This would have been good to know BEFORE we applied the Coppercoat as we may have changed our plans after launch.
  • Pure copper itself is relatively mild antifoul agent. It is actually the by-product of the copper oxidization process that have the stronger qualities.  Cuprous oxide is a far more powerful antifoul than pure copper.  It is the double effect of the resin degrading (to allow the exposure and release of the copper) itself oxidizing, that combine to provide a highly efficient antifoul.  And this process takes time.

Although we are very confident in the correct application process done by the yard, I failed to note what grade of sandpaper was used on the last burnishing.  I just noted in our blog that they sanded which is what they need to do to activate the Coppercoat. I wish I would have checked the grade.  However, I find it a ridiculous notion that they yard, who has been applying  Coppercoat for 10 years would have used the incorrect grade after all the time and effort it took to get to the final stage.  If they used a course or low grade sandpaper (something below 300 grade), which we truly believe the did not, it could have added to the problem (not been the cause of the problem, but added to it).

Bad Timing?

So does this all add up to just bad timing?  Our resin did not have a chance to degrade so the copper did not oxidize which allowed the barnacles a free hold on our bottom.

And it appears our boat was launched during a particularly high fouling time in a high fouling area.

We are aware of several other boats that stayed at different marinas along the same river and they too had a seriously bad barnacle problem.  In fact, one boat had Coppercoat that was applied a year ago, another had Coppercoat applied 5 months ago, and one had ablative bottom paint. All were covered in barnacles.  So, it was not just our marina, but perhaps the river, the warm water temperature, and bad timing?

The Solution

We immediately started cleaning the bottom of the boat with a metal scraper (while she is still in the water).  It took us 4 days and several turns with the hooka (diving apparatus) to remove all of the barnacles.  Again, this just breaks my heart!  We had such high hopes!  The reason it took us several days was because the water temps are really cold (20-21C) 69-70F degrees.  So, even with a wet suit we could not stay in the water more than 1.5-2hours at a time.

We unfortunately did not have the opportunity to haul the boat out immediately after discovery so we did the best we could with cleaning her while she was in the water.  You can see where we cleaned the top part in this photo.

We started with the metal scraper then followed it up with a scotch bright (mild) pad to get any remaining soft growth off the hull.

All in all it took us a total of 9 hours to clean the boat.  That’s 9 hours in 21c (69F) water which is really damn cold even in our wetsuits!

The good news is that 90% of the barnacles came off relatively easy with the metal scrape.  About 10% required more attention to get their white base off.  It was really difficult to get them off the freezer plates, SSB plates and around the dagger board casing.

Manufacturer Solution:

  • A thorough cleaning should be done immediately (and was).
  • The preferred method would be to haul the boat out and pressure wash it.  Then use a metal scraper (the type to decorate or remove old wall paper) to scrape off any remaining barnacles.  A fine grade of wet-and-dry paper (320 grade) should then be used.
    • The purpose of the sand paper is to remove the thinnest layer of epoxy at the surface to expose the copper held within. The exposed copper with then oxidize more readily when the boat is re-launched
  • Using course sandpaper will simply scratch the surface and provide a physical key for marine life to try to cling to. Only use mild grade paper or a burnishing pad.
  • It is important to do this quickly, before the growth becomes worse and attaches more firmly, as that will only make the cleaning more difficult.

After more back and forth, Aquarius Marine (Coppercoat UK), HullWell, and Norsand agreed to cover the cost to remove any remaining barnacles, and fully machine burnish the bottom at our next haul out.  We will be responsible for the cost to haul the boat and pressure wash it.  We will schedule to haul the boat out at the end of April as close to our departure date as possible – with the hopes of leaving NZ with a clean hull.

Still Hopeful

Matt and I are NOT giving up hope on Coppercoat.  We are hopeful that we were just at the wrong place at the wrong time with very young Coppercoat that was not ready for an onslaught of barnacles. So, I would say “not an overall failure but a complete and total disappointment.”

We will keep you posted on our experiment.  Feel free to contact us with any questions.

Our blog posts usually run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events, but I wanted this post to go out fairly close to the other two Coppercoat posts.  We discovered the barnacles around the end of January.  We are in a sticky situation in our last blog – did you read why?

A Sticky Situation: Vinyl

2 Replies

Last season we decided to change the color scheme of our boat from blue with red accents to gray.  A more modern and sleek color.  We converted a few things with the purchase of new canvas (sail bag, cockpit enclosure, dinghy chaps, cushions), and sails but we had to tackle the vinyl stickers.  We have loads of stickers on the boat.  Our “Sugar Shack” logo is on each bow and the port stern, our home port is on the starboard stern, Catana has 3 logos and we have 3 stripes that run along the 47′ of both the inside and outside of each hull.

It all had to come off!  We hired Vital Signs to recreate our new graphics.  Wayne came to visit us immediately after we were hauled out.  He showed us how to properly remove the stickers and adhesive.  Of course he made it look easy with the right tools.

Then Matt and I jump into the process.  It is a very painstaking process that requires tons of patience (which I have none), finger nails (gone), and proper tools (nope don’t have these either).  The first photo shows several of the vinyl stickers (Sugar Shack, red line, blue line, world, and boot strap blue line).  I use a small exacto knife blade to get under the 23 year old baked on stickers.

We use every method at our disposal, climbing ladders and platforms, hanging upside down, and sitting cross ways.

It was so sad to depersonalize our boat…

Then Came the Hard Part

As if getting the actual old vinyl stickers off the boat wasn’t difficult enough you had to go back and remove every spec of the adhesive!

This tested every bit of patience in my body!

The top photo shows the left over adhesive after the sticker stripe was removed.   But even if you cannot feel the adhesive on the boat it still remains!  Check out the bottom photo where you can barely see a light discoloration indicating residue.

Patience, loads of turpentine, lots of exacto blades later proved more successful.

After 5 days of scraping, moaning, and complaining, the boat is ready to be “cut” (or washed with an abrasive product) which will prepare the hull for polish and will remove any remaining adhesive.

The Design

We decided to make some changes to our vinyl graphics.  Instead of a small red stripe above the windows and a large blue stripe at the window line we are going to replace them both with just one larger gray stripe.  Instead of a large blue stripe and a small red one at the waterline we will replace them with one large gray stripe.  We will then replace the small “Catana World” logo with a logo Matt designed.

Because we have “Sugar Shack” on the stack pack (sail bag) and we have it on the stern we decided we did not need a huge logo at the top of the bows.  So, we incorporated it into the world which now represents more of the Pacific and the areas where we have sailed.

We head to Wayne’s office where he shows us a mock up of our design.  Now…you have to use your creative “eyes” as he takes an old photo with the old vinyl and overlays the new.  You can tell this is an old photo (maybe 3-4 years) as the bottom paint is red and the sail bag is blue.  Now our sailbag is gray and the bottom paint is black.

The Application

Wayne returns for 1.5 days to adhere all of our graphics.  We decided on 3m slate gray to match our canvas.  He is meticulous, effecient, and proficient.  I am shocked at how fast he is able to adhere all the stripes around everything.  

We especially love the black hole at the bow 🙂  The world is made up of 3 stickers.  The background, gray, then the white letters, then the black outlines around the letters. But the hole as is was pretty fun to see.

This is a fun photo which shows you the new stickers, the removal, and the old stickers on the back of each sugar scoop.

The before and after photos are remarkable. It immediately lifts our spirits to see our name back on our home.

We are so pleased with Wayne’s work.  We would highly recommend Vital Signs for all of your graphic needs.  They did an excellent job for a very reasonable price.  They are located in Whangarei, New Zealand.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post happened during the month of November.  We enjoy some Kiwi fun at a cabaret in our last blog post!

Rudder Rebuild: The Rudder Part II

Leave a reply

In Part I of our Rudder Rebuild 1, we walk you through the steps we took to custom design our new rudder posts.  Now we are ready to custom design each rudder blade.  The shafts had to be completed before we began the design process on the blades. 

Both of our rudders were removed immediately after being hauled out.  We were on the trailer and still dripping with water, but they had to come out now while we could raise the boat high enough to get them out of their casings. 

It is pretty clear that the temporary rudder and our standard one are very different shapes, but the surface measurement is about the same.  The borrowed rudder came off a bigger Catana 50, same manufacturer but very different blades.

The one on the left was borrowed from Norsand and the one on the right is our original 23 year old rudder.

Rudder Casing  is Compromised

After we removed the rudders we stuck our heads below the hole and looked up with a flash light.  To our horror we found a few issues with the rudder casing.  One there is a slight crack at the entrance and two there is a bump inside that was rubbing on the rudder post.  Lucky for us, both are fairly easy repairs.

Peter, the expert glassman and rudder specialist, comes over to help us remove the bearing and do the repairs. The bearing proved to be a bit of a challenge as it did not want to come out.  They get a massive sledge hammer and attack it from the top and bottom.  Once it is out, we sand down the blister, fill and paint it before installing the new bearing and case.  It all sounds simple enough but it took them several hours to complete this project.

As you can see the bearing case (lower two photos) was in need of replacement and lucky for us we had a spare on board.  Evidently, it was not considered “horrible” and still functional but we replaced it anyway.

Getting Started on the Rudders

We hand over our old rudder and the two new shafts.  The foam is cut and patterned to fit our new shafts and tines.  As you can see, the rudder posts and tines support the blade a lot better than our original ones which stopped before the center of the rudder.  Weights are put on the foam to ensure it all sticks together.

We are not on site to watch the exact process so I may be missing steps.  Once the foam is sealed and molded they apply fiber glass.  The rudder on the left is done and the one on the right is in process.

Norsand Takes Over 

Once the fiberglass work is done, they are sanded down.  Then we make the executive decision to apply the Hemple barrier coat instead of the Interprotect barrier coat.  Why did we use a different barrier coat on the rudders than on the bottom of the boat?  The primary reason was we didn’t want to wait 2 weeks for the Interprotect to off gas.  So we used Hemple and dealt with the difficult application process.

The Hemple barrier coat was having a hard time curing which meant they could not sand the peaks and valleys.  We were delayed by 5 days waiting for the paint to cure, sand, tweak, sand, tweak and sand again before the rudders were handed back to us to have Norsand apply the coppercoat.

Norsand quickly covers the rudders in coppercoat repeating the same process as on the bottom paint. 

Once the coppercoat is dry, they sand the rudders to activate the coppercoat.  Then it is time to fit them.

Does the Shoe Fit?

Must admit that there is a little anxiety about the rudders fitting properly.  We were confident the builder knew what he was doing and did it perfectly, but there is a little niggle in the back of our minds.  We knew they were made much stronger and safer than our previously rudders that were factory made and lasted 23 years.  But it is hard to relax until they are fitted.

The yard has to raise us on the trailer in order for us to be high enough to insert the rudders into their shaft/casing.

Peter, Tony and Kevin are on hand to help us install the rudders.  Matt is inside the engine compartment inserting the bolt (bottom right photos) while Peter and Tony insert the shaft.  It is a perfect fit on port.

Starboard needs a little bigger spacer which we can easily make with help from Rob at RH Precision.  What a relief to have two stronger, well crafted rudders back on the boat!

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog posts occured during over 2 weeks in November.  Did you see how we custom designed our rudder posts in part I?