Lots of problems with fouling in the salt water of Grevelingenmeer in the Netherlands. I have tried a new anti-fouling product: finsulate. It's basically a sticker wrap with fibres (bit lik a carpet) which should prevent plants and animals to stick to the hull.
First: put the boat on blocks. To do this I unfold the boat on the trailer (put smallish wheels on the trailer so the floats clear the wheels while unfolding). I wedge a piece of timber at the top of the cabin entrance to minimise flex. Then I jack up the (axle of the) trailer on two sides about 30 cm, put blocks under the floats, lower the trailer and pull the trailer away.
Next: removing old antifouling and epoxy priming. Then wrapping it with finsulate (the dark carpetish-stuff in the photo below).
Unfortunately, at the end of the season it was apparent the finsulate - or at least the 'speed' version with short fibres I used - was not working for my situation, lots of growth made sailing impossible.
So, boat back on stands to remove the finsulate. Tried all kinds of methods to do this the easy way, but nothing worked. I had to cut it loose bit by bit with a window scraper (the kind with a Stanleyknive blade). What a pain in the....
This time i invested in four foldable welding stands to support the boat. I wish I had done this earlier, this works great. Putting the boat on these stands takes me single handed no more than 20 minutes, taking it easy.
Now the boat is again painted with self polishing antifouling paint. In the Netherlands it has been decided proper working antifoulings with high copper ratios may only be used for commercial ships, not for recreational ships.
This has led to lots of people selling&buying commercial antifouling paint under the counter, or buying it in our neighbour countries (Germany and Belgium) where it is legally available for recreational craft. Other people try to enhance the antifouling properties of the recreational paint by adding copperpowder. Maybe the effects of banning these paints without a working alternative people can switch to are worse than the intended positive (enironmental) effects.
Next: modification outboard engine exhaust for better reverse stopping power.
