Copronickle Bottom Paint

Some businesses are starting to crop up promoting Cupronickle (I think that is spelled right) bottom paint.* They say no environmental issues, faster hull and no haul outs for 10 years.* Much more expensive ($20 per square foot) I was quoted.*
Apparently it combines copper and nickle some how that changes its molecular structure and is applied in an epoxy base.

Has anyone had any experience with this?* Is it all that it is cracked up to be?

Thanks,

Steve

I used this, or a similar product 25 years ago on my Cape George cutter sailboat.* It did not include nickel, as I recall, but was a high load of copper sprayed on with epoxy.* I can't say it really worked very well.* When I sailed to Hawaii, I had 3 foot long goose barnacles on the hull.* Ultimately, I ended up painting the bottom with bottom paint over the expensive copper/epoxy bottom.

Perhaps this new technique is different, but I would be very wary.

The spelling is cupro-nickel. I couldn't find any meaningful information on antifouling paint using cupro-nickel materials. Do you have any links or brand names?

Copper-nickel (cupro-nickel) alloys have inherent long-term antifouling properties and excellent corrosion resistance in seawater. The alloy designations are typically 70-30 or 90-10 copper-nickel with differing strength, corrosion*and antifouling properties.*Some industries use these alloys for fouling resistance for cooling water intakes for power plants, etc. There have been a few metal boats built using copper-nickel sheathing for bottom plating but it is a very expensive material. The reports I've seen show excellent fouling resistance and durability over the boat's lifetime. Be very careful about galvanic corrosion of other metals near copper-nickel. Here's is one report I found.

http://www.copper.org/applications/cuni/pdf/nace_05238.pdf

You can find more info at www.copper.org.

There have been some attempts to develop a way to apply copper-nickel to boat bottoms for many years but nothing commercially successful yet. One method was essentially peel-and-stick copper-nickel foil. Another technique is flame spraying molten copper-nickel to the actual bottom surface.

It would be a great long-term antifouling solution if someone can perfect it.

Here in California, the wacko-enviros are trying to eliminate copper-bearing bottom paint. So far, the replacement paints have failed miserably, but hey, it's only money.

2000 years ago Phoenicians knew of the benefits of copper sheathing on the hulls of their vessels. As Ancora states, more places are banning Cu based bottom paints. For those familiar with the clean bottoms at the Tacoma Yacht Club years ago - it was copper rich drainage from the Tacoma smelter. Cu SO4 crystals or liquid kill all organisms. So does arsenic but way too pervasive for bottom paint.

Face it, the enviro-Nazis in CA are trying to ban boating completely.

The enviro-nazis have a home in the democrat party and California is a one-party state so they are able to pass any anti-boating law they want to. It's too late for us, but the rest of you guy's better be aware of what is coming your way. Environmentalism is just another weapon to be used against captalism and Obummer is using it well. What do you think we are going to get first, nuclear plants or off-shore drilling? You should live so long.

I know I posted this years ago, but as the subject of bottom paint has resurfaced, I'll reiterate. *For those in California or other states who have extremely restrictive laws concerning bottom paints, I've found that adding O.C. spray to the bottom paint will help in reducing growth without violating any*environmental*law. *I've added this to bottom paints when I lived in Cali and when I pulled the boat the paint seemed to have less growth than without using it. *Organisms don't like the taste of the pepper used in the spray, thus reducing growth on the bottom. *Cheap too!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_spray


A word of warning: *be very careful in spraying the liquid into the paint as you don't want to inhale it or get it on your skin (wear plastic gloves) or you'll see why the spray is so effective with law enforcement!


Mike
Brookings, OR