Cayenne pepper in bottom paint?

My dock neighbor told me today that some of the old timers here on the Chesapeake Bay add cayenne pepper to their bottom paint. My neighbor said he tried it and was favorably impressed. Anyone else ever hear of this practice?

I tried it on a skiff I built in 1990,didn't work. Maybe I had recipe wrong but no noticeable defense against barnacles or growth

A. little cayenne and lemon juice on my oysters always tastes nice .

seattleboatguy said:

My dock neighbor told me today that some of the old timers here on the Chesapeake Bay add cayenne pepper to their bottom paint. My neighbor said he tried it and was favorably impressed. Anyone else ever hear of this practice?

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Those kinds of things are hard to qualify if you aren't taking a more scientific approach such as painting half of a bottom with and half without. Chesapeake Bay is a bad area to gauge when comparing different years. Being brackish water, marine growth varies significantly with salinity (subject to seasonal rainfall) and water temperatures.

Ted

Folks have been adding that and all sorts of other biocides for years. But objective data to support claims of 'improvement' does not exist. Interlux ran a test program on pepper in partnership with McCormick (spice suppliers) and concluded the benefits were minimal.

Best solution is to use the boat every day. If that's not possible then wiping down as often as you can - once a week would be great, once a month from a diver might be a good investment. Avoid aggressive scrubbing, which removes your coating way too fast.

The Navy experimented with it in the 80's, obviously it didn't work to well....

Ok, here is the answer.. do not buy the pepper, do not mix, then buy some damn good bottom paint, paint your bottom, tell your friends you used a mix of weatherbeater, jalapeño, Cheyenne, habanero dried and ground and mixed it up and painted your bottom after you faced Mecca and chanted....Or Not... either way, paint your bottom with the best paint for your area of operation with the best prep and you will be the winner.

Add some melted cheese withe cayenne pepper and you can transform your boat into a big nacho, believe me a friend of a friend of friend told me his neighbour friend did it

seattleboatguy said:

My dock neighbor told me today that some of the old timers here on the Chesapeake Bay add cayenne pepper to their bottom paint. My neighbor said he tried it and was favorably impressed. Anyone else ever hear of this practice?

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Is this him ?

gaston said:

Is this him ?

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Wow this one is radar equipped

I use morten sea salt. it makes the Barnacles taste much better

Hey Gaston,
That's my lost uncle Furdy, we been looking for him.
Please return him to your local lost and found , for return to the "house".

Bill

seattleboatguy said:

My dock neighbor told me today that some of the old timers here on the Chesapeake Bay add cayenne pepper to their bottom paint. My neighbor said he tried it and was favorably impressed. Anyone else ever hear of this practice?

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If it worked, you'd be able to buy it. But you can't. Because it doesn't.

Many years ago I read in National Fisherman magazine that New England lobster fishermen were painting their buoys with wrought iron furniture paint because nothing would grow on it. The ingredients of the paint has some similarities to the band tributal tin bottom paint that worked so well.

Maybe carlic and cros is beter this problems, put them on a boat on the wall, keep bad problems away from the bottom.


forgive me, a serious subject, if not ever anyone try new things, nothing can also develop. perhaps the best antifouling paint to rely on companies that hope to try to make progress.

North Baltic sea said:

forgive me, a serious subject, if not ever anyone try new things, nothing can also develop.

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We have the commercial paint companies competing with each other and trying new things. They have the resources that we as individuals do not. If cayenne pepper was effective in bottom paint, you can be certain the commercial paint would contain it.

Putting cayenne pepper in your bottom paint will be in my upcoming book "101 Stupid Boating Tricks".

TBT works but is illegal.

Bottom paint and the annual, biennial or triennial ritual of hosing the last stuff off and putting new stuff on, "better" than the last crap you put on is a game. Manufacturers put less stuff in it, advertise the crap out of it, charge way more than last year for it, then you get to go through the entire process again in your annual, biennial or triennial ritual...

In Canada, the paint has lost all its effectiveness by government decree but its more expensive here than it ever was.

It's a have, a scam and a ripoff and all justifiable because we are rich boaters. Some day, somebody will invert a process that eliminates all paints once and for all and these outfits will go the way of the buggy whip.

Sorry, I'm grumpy coz I've got a filthy cold.

Xsbank said:

Sorry, I'm grumpy coz I've got a filthy cold.

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I tend to agree that paint manufacturers are selling... Paint. It is a business model, if you sell paint that last 20 years you won't sell much...

But you are grumpy just because... You are grumpy, no excuse! Lol

If putting cayenne pepper in your bottom paint makes you feel better go right ahead and do so. I like my tequila with a worm in the bottle, nobody gives me any grief for it. I also drink my scotch neat so what do I really know?

I conducted secret interviews with 100 barnacles. Half said they like cayenne pepper on their food, the other half were not bothered either way. I`d say it`s total WOFTAM adding it to the paint.

BruceK said:

I conducted secret interviews with 100 barnacles. Half said they like cayenne pepper on their food, the other half were not bothered either way. I`d say it`s total WOFTAM adding it to the paint.

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You speak barnacle very well, you have so many hidden talent Bruce

CPseudonym said:

If putting cayenne pepper in your bottom paint makes you feel better go right ahead and do so. I like my tequila with a worm in the bottle, nobody gives me any grief for it. I also drink my scotch neat so what do I really know?

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Hey, maybe cutting bottom paint with a very nice single-malt would make the barnacles forget what they were supposed to be doing . . .

I'll tell you what guys,
I doubt that the cayenne pepper wold work with a "hard" bottom paint, I don't know'
I don't use it.

But until YOU actually try the cayenne in an ablative bottom paint, YOU don't know.
All you're doing is "passing gas".

Try it , then tell us whether or not it works for your area and boat.

I have tried it in BC waters on my boat, operating year round, and not just for
one year.

It worked!!

Now that's experience, not "hot air".

What's yours???

Ted

Ted said:

I'll tell you what guys,
I doubt that the cayenne pepper wold work with a "hard" bottom paint, I don't know'
I don't use it.

But until YOU actually try the cayenne in an ablative bottom paint, YOU don't know.
All you're doing is "passing gas".

Try it , then tell us whether or not it works for your area and boat.

I have tried it in BC waters on my boat, operating year round, and not just for
one year.

It worked!!

Now that's experience, not "hot air".

What's yours???

Ted

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Just a question... If you mix it with ablative antifouling how can you say if the result if from the ablative antifouling or the pepper?
If you want to check if it is working or not you will need to test it in an ablative paint that has no antifouling properties and compare with a standard antifouling. If you mix bith you cannot say it thenresult is from the paintmor the magic additive.

I do not say it is working or not, just want judgement based on reproductible experiment.

Don't know if it works without antifouling, but gave much better results
than the same antifouling paint without the cayenne. Checked on two
boats, same areas, same usage, multiple years.
Results were also remarked on by a diver who was clearing a trap line from the
prop.( It wasn't any use against that type of fouling).

Ted

The real test is what happens in warm tropical waters.

BC waters are so cold that nothing much grows fast enough to be a problem. I am reliably informed that writing 'No Parking' on the bottom with a Sharpie will give you at least a year there....

Am counting on fresh-water flooding on the Napa River to help kill off salt-water growths.

Insequent said:

The real test is what happens in warm tropical waters.

BC waters are so cold that nothing much grows fast enough to be a problem. I am reliably informed that writing 'No Parking' on the bottom with a Sharpie will give you at least a year....

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Depends where you are in BC. When I kept my boat year round in Coal Harbour (Downtown Vancouver, tucked in behind Stanley Park, low salinity, lots of shade) I never had much growth. Now that I keep Retreat 6 months in Long Harbour, I am fighting the poor anti fouling of the paints I have tried, as the barnacle growth I have experienced is phenomenal.

Think I will go buy some sharpies and see how they help.

I like the idea of the sharpie!
I first read of this in "Yachting Magazine" being used in Florida, including
fresh water, decided it was worth a try.

Ted