Barnacles

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Rick D

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Well, finally I got my boat out of the water today. The Petit ablative paint on the bottom held up very well and even after a 4500 PSI power wash, it still looks great. What doesn't look great are stern drives and trim tabs. Absolutely covered in barnacles... and I had a late start this season. Anyway, next year I will try propspeed on the props and whatever else they make for the trim tabs and the stainless steel rod that supports my swim platform.. as they were all covered, in a few spots, more than an inch thick in growth.

But what about the stern drives themselves? I had coated both in primocon followed by two coats of trilux before launch in June. In spots on the drive there was absolutely no growth... in other spots, it was obscene the amount of growth. Is there a better product for protecting merc stern drives?... maybe something similar to the Petit ablative I have on the bottom, which did great?

Even the plastic trim tab cylinders where caked and layered with barnicles... and my depth sound, a humminbird... well, now I know why it started giving erroneous readings. What can I do for the plastic transducer?

--Rick
 
Use two cans of Trilux on each outdrive - Transducer paint on the 'ducer - my outdrives had one or two barnicles this year using this method. Paint anything that the little suckers can get to - Trilux for outdrives and plastic - regular anti-fouling for the rest.
 
Had the exact same problem as you. I switched from the spray Trilux to the regular paint on Trilux. Boat is kept in an area prone to fouling. Boat pulled this week no growth on drives,tabs, or swimplatform supports. For whatever reason the spray variety of Trilux is close to worthless in my several year experience.
 
I did use 2 cans per drive. I will try the paint on Trilux for this upcoming season.

--Rick
 
I had the same problem about 3 weeks ago hadn't taken the boat out since June and I couldn't get her on plane. I had the boat hauled and couldn't believe the Barnacle growth on anything metal especially my props and trim tabs. After a power wash and a few hours of scraping the metal & props she is back in the water and running fine. It is very unusual for me to not use the boat a couple times a month but with the price of marine fuel and my dwindling income this was the result. This year we have used the boat more as a Condo (dock Mary) than cruising. It would have cost me less to run the boat than having it hauled and scraped. Live and learn.
Bill
 
This year, I used Pettit Ultima SR60. Boat went in the water on April 1st. Hauled out middle of August to see where all the drag was coming from. The bottom was as clean as a baby's a$$...not a single barnacle or sign of marine growth.

Outdrive (BIII) was painted with Trilux before spring launch. It was a complete mess with more barnacles than I have ever seen. I talked to the Pettit rep at the Annapolis power boat show and told him of my experience with the SR60 and whined about the outdrive. His solution for next year was to use Pettit Ultima Eco, a new copper-free ablative. It's worth a try since the Trilux hasn't proven to be worth a hoot.
 
used banicle barrier from prttit on my tabs and running gear. Had a few barnicles at haulout . Not too bad.
 
Will have to ask around up here. Where the boat is kept is near the mouth of inlet... so there is always a flow rushing by one way or the other. When it was hauled yesterday, the guys at the yard said it was a lot of growth but not untypical for that location. Have to see if others have had positive experiences with the brush on trilux and the Petit ablative mentioned by PathFinder. Very impressed with the Petit bottom paint... if their drive paint is anywhere near as good, it would save a lot of effort and $$$. I don't know how the engines didn't overheat... every intake hole on both stern drive had barnacles in them.

--Rick
 
quote:
Originally posted by Gregory S

used banicle barrier from prttit on my tabs and running gear. Had a few barnicles at haulout . Not too bad.

Click to expand...


Gregory, I've only used clear AF on my running gear going all the way back to the tri-butyltin product. I've been using water based clear AF since the elimination of the tin based product. Boat still in water so don't know what to expect as yet. Re the Pettit Barnacle Barrier; several boaters in our marina used it with great results. So much so, I may, for the first time ever, use an opaque paint. Will know next week.
 
Bob, I did the shafts, rudders and tabbs with BB before I hasd the boat shipprd to Va. On arrival. the yard owner tod me it was great stuff, then he did the props before he launched the boat.
 
The Pettit Barnacle Barrier I am familiar with is the Zinc Coat Barnacle Barrier in the spray can. Use it at your peril on Merc stern drives. It is not for use on aluminum.

Additionally, the Pettit rep spoke at one of our Power Squadron meetings and said the Barnacle Barrier and the Transducer Paint were identical products. Just labeled differently to appeal to different market demands.
 
Not much issue with barnacles but the green mussels are really a hassle.
 
Rick- I had the same problem the first couple of years that I had boats with outdrives. The worst problem was my Regal with twin outdrives since now the barnacles had even more spots to grow. The PropSpeed is the best product I ever found but it can only be applied to BARE metal so if there is any type of paint on your trim tabs or props it will need to be sanded down to bare metal before applying PropSpeed. I went so far with the PropSpeed that I sanded the entire foot of both of my outdrives to the bard metal and when I applied the PropSpeed to the trim tabs and props, I coated the foot of each outdrive. My dock is such a high growth area that I would short haul the Regal 2 times each season to blast away the barnacle. IMHO None of the spray on aerosol paints are effective in a high growth area. The spray on paints contain a lot of propellant and very little paint.

I found applying 2-3 costs of the brush on paints to last much longer. You can buy a little spray applicator at Home Depot that will allow you to make your own spray paint by mixing the brush on paint with about 25% paint thinner, this allows you to spray into the areas that you can not reach with a brush. The spray applicator has a small clear plastic jar that you mix the paint and thinner and it is propelled with a small can of compressed air that screws onto the jar, it works great and is much cheaper than the aerosol cans.

I spent many months each winter scraping and painting outdrives and in my area I will never have a boat with outdrives unless I have rack storage or a boat lift. I really love my inboards ;-)
 
On the advice of my yard, I switched to Petit Ultima Eco on the drives this year. Though initially skeptical of the outcome, I have had FAR better results than with the Trilux 33 applications I had utilized in previous seasons. Not even in the same league. This stuff on the drives and tabs, along with Propspeed on the wheels, resulted in a totally hassle free season wrt running gear fouling.
 
quote:
Originally posted by V1rowT8

On the advice of my yard, I switched to Petit Ultima Eco on the drives this year. Though initially skeptical of the outcome, I have had FAR better results than with the Trilux 33 applications I had utilized in previous seasons. Not even in the same league. This stuff on the drives and tabs, along with Propspeed on the wheels, resulted in a totally hassle free season wrt running gear fouling.

Click to expand...


Regarding the Petit, is there a window you need to splash by after it is applied? I know there is with Trilux. I would love to be able to take the drives off now and prep for spring... but if you have to splash within X days of application, I will probably wait until spring.

--Rick
 
Prop Speed is probably the best running gear paint you can buy but it's expensive and labor intensive. The Pettit Zinc Coat barnacle barrier is cheap and easy to use. That's a hard combination to beat. I'm very pleased with the Pettit paint.
 
I use Trilux on my outdrive over 2 coats of Mecury Phantom black. My boat is in the water 3 months in south Florida every winter and I don't get anything on the drive. The water is 85 degrees and very salty but trilux works.
 
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