Antifouling paint

[johnc71490]

Looking for input on anti fouling paint being applied to performance tritoons in fresh water (Lake Erie). Normal practice appears to be to let the junk and zebra mussels grow on the pontoons, but my experience with fiberglass planning hulls is performance suffers badly when the hull is fouled. Any opinions pro it con?

 

[jcastle]

Looking for input on anti fouling paint being applied to performance tritoons in fresh water (Lake Erie). Normal practice appears to be to let the junk and zebra mussels grow on the pontoons, but my experience with fiberglass planning hulls is performance suffers badly when the hull is fouled. Any opinions pro it con?

You would want to seal the pontoons with a high build epoxy primer like Tuff Stuff by Sea Hawk Paints. 2 coats. This will help with adhesion and protect against corrosion. Since the pontoons are aluminum, you should not put on a tradtional copper based antifouling. Copper + alumium = a battery and you will have pits and eventually holes in the pontoons. So you would need a copper free bottom paint (antifoulant) like Mission Bay by Sea Hawk Paints. It wont work as well as copper based antifoulant, but will do the trick for you in Lake Erie and keep the hard growth from occurring. You should also put on 2 coats of the antifoul.

If you want to put copper based bottom paint on the pontoons, it can be done. You just have to make sure you build up the primer with at least 4 coats so there is a barrier between the aluminum and the copper paint. Hope this helps!

 

[johnc71490]

Thanks jcastle. Maybe the relative ineffectivness of non copper based paint is why its not commonly done? I may do the heavy epoxy barrier and use a high copper content paint then. I have already lost 5 mph on a 2575 RCWCP w/ 250 Verado and ESP package. And I've only been in for a month!!