Has anyone here any experience making up their own anti-fouling paint?

On a face book page a suggestion was made to add copper powder to marine paint as a cheap and effective anti-fouling. Copper powder is readily available and not too expensive. My thought would be to add this to the cheapest anti-fouling paint (because of its ablative characteristics).

Has anyone tried this? If so how good is it.

My reason for asking is that we cannot obtain Pettit Trinidad SR here in Ireland. This worked extremely well for us - we have not had to repaint our boat 's bottom for over five years - and still no fouling. It has a lot of copper in it.

+x

 

Dick - 11/21/2019

Hi Alex, Simon and all,
It sounds like adding copper powder to bottom paint is exactly what paint manufacturers were banned from doing because it was so bad for the ocean/environment. If that is accurate, then I would wish to discourage skippers from going this route. To me there is no question that adding copper powder would work and make a difference at discouraging anything alive from growing on a boat’s bottom, but that is also the problem: at what cost to the environment?

Dick
Thatis actually quite incorrect what you are writing. Copper has never been an issue. As a fisheries biologist and someone deeply involved with shellfish culture and on the board of an Oyster fishermen's cooperative, this is something I have been following closely since the beginning.
What is a severe problem are organo-metal compounds. The most commonly used of these is tributyltin or TBT. There are still places in the world where this (very effective) antifoulant is readily available and commercial shipping still uses is. TBT is banned in most waters, including in all of Europe and the Americas. TBD causes severe deformities in shellfish and will wipe out entire shellfish beds in exceedingly low concentrations. Copper, on the other hand, is naturally in the seawater. Yes, it is an effective antifoulant in high concentrations such as in absolute immediat proximity, but once diluted it shows no known adverse effect.
I hope this clarifies the issue.

+x

 

Alex Blackwell - 11/21/2019

+x

 

Dick - 11/21/2019

Hi Alex, Simon and all,
It sounds like adding copper powder to bottom paint is exactly what paint manufacturers were banned from doing because it was so bad for the ocean/environment. If that is accurate, then I would wish to discourage skippers from going this route. To me there is no question that adding copper powder would work and make a difference at discouraging anything alive from growing on a boat’s bottom, but that is also the problem: at what cost to the environment?

Dick
Thatis actually quite incorrect what you are writing. Copper has never been an issue. As a fisheries biologist and someone deeply involved with shellfish culture and on the board of an Oyster fishermen's cooperative, this is something I have been following closely since the beginning.
What is a severe problem are organo-metal compounds. The most commonly used of these is tributyltin or TBT. There are still places in the world where this (very effective) antifoulant is readily available and commercial shipping still uses is. TBT is banned in most waters, including in all of Europe and the Americas. TBD causes severe deformities in shellfish and will wipe out entire shellfish beds in exceedingly low concentrations. Copper, on the other hand, is naturally in the seawater. Yes, it is an effective antifoulant in high concentrations such as in absolute immediat proximity, but once diluted it shows no known adverse effect.
I hope this clarifies the issue.

Hi Alex, Yes, it does. I thought copper was one of the metals that were banned from being in bottom paint. thanks for the clarification. Dick