No Copper on Our Hull.
In 2020 regulations dictate in Washington State and California that the hull paint on pleasure vessels should be of the non-copper kind and/or have a very slow leaching rate. Thousand of pleasure boats are mostly sitting at the docks and are continually leaching copper into yacht harbors and have polluted coastal waters.
The discussion about bottom paint is heated. Container ships all over world (53,000 merchant ships in 2018) are painted with copper bottom paint and cruise ships are big polluters as well, so why should owners of pleasure boats stop using copper bottom paint?
I argue: why not us? The non-copper bottom paint is not more expensive and needs the same maintenance as conventional copper bottom paints. San Diego recently repaid boaters who applied non-copper bottom paint in an effort to change boater’s attitude and to accept the change easier before it became law.
Another argument is that the non-copper paints are non-toxic and healthier for the ones working with it. If you walk through a boat yard, you can smell where bottom paint is applied and people use respiratory precautions like masks and full body covers. As you can see in the pictures below, Radu din’t use anything. The workers at Driscoll’s remarked when applying our bottom paint that it did not smell and didn’t give them a headache like the other paints do. That is good enough for me and worth the effort, I think.
The former owners of our Imagine had proactively painted her hull with Pettit Ultima Eco, a non-copper paint, before we bought her. When the Imagine arrived at the boatyard on Shelter Island in November of 2014, her hull was power washed and the paint flacked off of most of her hull. Everyone immediately attributed this to ‘That eco paint!’, but after some research we found that it must have been a combination of the preparation of the last application and the very strong jet of the power washing. The company claims that this non-copper paint can be applied onto most copper paints. In our case the paint stayed gummy, hadn’t adhered to the paint base layer and flaked off when hit by a very strong stream of water.
Afterwards we also learned, that Pettit Ultima Eco (product info here) is an ablative paint and is meant to come off with strong water pressure. Instead of copper, the active agent is a natural biocite, Econea, creating an oxygen vacuum and so making the surface inhabitable for organisms to grow on. Even the slime, the first agent of growth, supposed to have a hard time attaching to the paint. In addition, ablative paint comes off over time, leaving little residue, so that it only needs a little sanding to be painted again. The boatyard had not checked on the type of bottom paint on our boat before the power washing and went right ahead washing down the paint. Revolving check book!!
Well, the damage was done and we decided to give this paint another shot. We had Driscoll strip off all the old layers of copper paint off the hull down to the gel coat/fiberglass. Then the hull was sanded smooth and the two coats of primer were put on. The timing between second coat of primer and the actual paint coat is critical: the primer cannot be left to dry completely and must leave an slight indent and be sticky but not stick to the finger and the bottom paint needs to be applied fast for the two (primer and paint) to bond. Weather, temperature and thickness of primer coats are also critical. Experience counts here. The company claims that with the right application this paint can hold up way longer than conventional copper paint.
There is another environment-friendlier bottom paint we see people use called ‘Coppercoat’, where pure copper is mixed with epoxy resin and rolled thinly in several coats to the hull. Just before splashing it needs to be ‘activated by light surface sanding and every six months re-activated again, but other than that it leaches off very little copper and holds up apparently for ten years. Because of its very low leach rate Coopercoat will be allowed in California.
Maintenance of our Pettit Ultima Exo bottom paint s also different and critical. The Pettit Ultima Eco is an ablative paint, it is quite soft and comes off overtime. For cleaning, the hull should to be wiped with a micro fiber glove or a soft terry cloth only. While we were on the dock prepping for our departure for a year and a half, we had a diver, Alberto, tending to her hull and filming the before and after his monthly cleaning. His findings are that the non-copper paint holds up the SAME way as conventional copper paint does! He cleans another boat with Pettit Ultima Eco and had the same experience there. No more hearsay. We have proof and will post the videos here soon.
Somebody on the dock explained to me that these bio paints usually take care of themselves if a boat is regularly moved, about three to four times a week, and that on the West coast of the United States this paint wouldn’t need much maintenance because the waters are so cool and clean. In Mexico on the other hand, waters have rampant growth because of environmental pollutants and because algae grows faster in warm climates in general, he said, we would need to monitor the hull closely and wipe it down possibly weekly. Good thing that the water will be warm and diving is fun!
Update summer 2016
After we arrived in Mexico in April of 2016, we cleaned hull twice in four months, and when we hauled out in July 2016 in Puerto Penasco, the hull looked good! No growth to speak off and the little we had came off with a little coaxing with a spatula or 80 grit sandpaper. We gave her a sand again and another coat. Here we made a mistake: it was too hot when we applied the paint. It says in the instructions to apply the paint between 50°-90° F, but the weather was over 100°F in August in Penasco and after about three weeks, the surface started to crack on the side facing the sun, like alligator skin. We thought it was ok and splashed two months later in November 2016.
Update summer 2017
Until the next haul out in July 2017, in these 7 months in the water we cleaned the bottom three times. I know, we were lazy. The water was cold. When we hauled out, the bottom had barnacles. Some came off with a power wash, the rest with a spatula. We sanded the hull again, and paint before splashing.
We hauled out at Cabrales in Puerto Peñasco again in JULY 2017. In November 2017 Radu sanded the bottom paint lightly and applied another two coats of Pettit Ultima Eco.
Update spring 2019
Life happened and we stayed on land for a season. The decision was made after Radu had sanded and painted the hull in early December 2017 in expectation of splashing early January 2018. As expected it took one day of light sanding and one coat of Pettit Ultima Eco paint for our Alberg 37 cutaway full keep.
We didn’t splash and the Imagine was on the hard in the brutal sun of Puerto Peñasco for one year. Nothing happened to the paint. It looked after one year like it was freshly painted. We splashed finally in late March 2019 and will spend until July in the Sea of Cortez and haul out again Puerto Peñasco for the summer hurricane season.
Research
Informative Sail Magazine article from April 2017 here
Port of San Diego initiated a copper reduction program because ‘copper from anti-fouling hull paints can be a significant source of water pollution in marina basins’ and ‘copper harms marine life by impeding or altering their development’. The port is leading leading by Example and has converted all boats in its fleet to non-copper hull paints. The fleet includes both Harbor Police boats and General Services work boats here . The port also developped a boater’s guide on how to select alternative bottom paints here
Further updates
I will update here in summer how the paint looked at haul out and we will also add a video compilation of the before & after hull cleaning from Jan 2015 to June 2017 here soon!!