Green Anti-Fouling Paint
The minute your boat hits the water all sorts of aquatic critters try to hitch a ride. Depending on your water conditions - fresh or salt, warm or cold, you will experience varying degrees of growth on your hull. If not treated properly, before too long, a little green line will form at the waterline, followed by an increasing amount of slimy stuff accumulating below the waterline. In the most extreme cases the big boys – barnacles, muscles, and their friends will grab on too.
For centuries mariners dealt with this same problem, of course, but somewhere along the way, somebody came up with a solution that sounded pretty good at the time. Unfortunately for the environment, the same basic principles behind this original fix have led to a pollution problem that may never go away. After getting fed up with watching their boats devoured below the waterline, some ancient shipwright decided to apply a thin sheet of copper to his vessels hull. As pretty as it is, copper is deadly toxic to anything that tries to grow on it.
In modern times, the chemical gurus decided that what worked for the Romans would work today. Instead of sheathing entire boats in copper, however, somebody decided to mix copper into a paint that could be applied to a boat’s hull. Other nasty stuff – mostly heavy metals – were also added, making modern day anti-fouling paint.
To prolong the effectiveness of this wonder product, most formulas are designed to be “ablative”, and here is where the damage to the marine environment starts. Ablative paints are soft. Over time, the paint layers gradually fall off, exposing a new and more toxic layer of paint to keep the critters away. The problem, of course, is that as the old layer of paint sinks, it carries along with it trace amounts of all the toxins it contains.
A 30 foot sailboat requires about four gallons of anti-fouling paint to adequately cover the exposed hull surface. The average effective life of this paint job is about 18-24 months. If you are using copper paint you are basically dumping four gallons of paint over the side every few years. Add up all the boaters doing the same thing and you can start to see what we are doing to the waters we enjoy. As tempting as it may be to blame big industry for most of our water pollution problems, boaters should take a long look into the mirror as well.
There are statistics that will make your head spin about heavy metal concentrations, parts per million, etc… but the one that really hits home has to do with the resident Killer Whale populations of Puget Sound. Based on laboratory analysis of random blood samples from these majestic creatures, the toxic load in their bodies will probably make the entire group sterile, and subsequently extinct, within the next 25 years. Now obviously, this travesty did not occur just because of boat paint. But if mankind’s efforts to go a little faster, or make their boats look neat and shiny contributed even a little bit, we should be ashamed of ourselves if we use another gallon of toxic anti-fouling paint.
Alternatives exist that are effective, safe, and comparable in cost.
One of the pioneers in the area of copper-free boat paints is a company called EPaint. In a nutshell, Epaint solves the problem of deterring marine growth on your boat with a common substance – hydrogen peroxide. When properly applied, EPaint reacts with water and oxygen to create a microscopic layer of hydrogen peroxide on the bottom of your boat. Hydrogen peroxide is toxic to life forms that might try to take hold, however, when it falls off into the water it breaks down harmlessly. You see, the chemical formula for hydrogen peroxide is H2O2. After it sloughs off your hull, H2O2 converts into good old H2O - or water –in no time. So, instead of leaving a trail of copper in your wake you get to keep your speed, keep your shine, and stop causing harm.
For more details on EPaint you can check out the company’s main web site at
Before you buy please consider going through greenboatstuff.com at
Another option that is gaining ground are the “slick” paints being developed. The concept here is a paint that is so slippery it is extremely difficult for any organism to grab on in the first place. Much like a Teflon pan that keep food from sticking, these “Teflon” paints are better alternatives, in our opinion, than the copper paints. The issue we have with the slick paints, however, is that the chemical compounds that make them work can still accumulate in the water, and subsequently the tissue of the plants and animals that live there. The manufacturers will argue that the slick paints are much harder than the ablatives, and therefore less likely to come off your hull in the short term. While this may be
true, all paints peel eventually. Compared to copper, however, the slick paints are a much better choice.
The greenest option, of course, is to apply no paint at all. A long, sturdy scrub brush works pretty well at dislodging most algae. Sure it’s a chore, but so is painting. At about $200 per gallon for anti-fouling paint (reapplied every few years), you can also pencil the cost of hiring a local diver to do the scrubbing for you, or just doing it yourself. If you were looking for an excuse to justify the cost of getting dive certified, here you go.
Whatever you decide when it comes to anti-fouling paint, please try to look at the big picture. As big as we might think the world is, it is still a closed system, affected either now or later by the actions we take.
