One of the most unpopular but inevitable chores is a fresh application of antifoul. Not only can this be time consuming and expensive, it is a genuinely unpleasant job, given the solvents (Volatile Organic Compounds) and biocides found in all modern active coatings.

And having to dress-up like a worker decommissioning a nuclear reactor site simply adds to the general feeling of dread.

But over the last 30 years, a quiet revolution has been underway, with an ever-increasing number of boat owners ridding themselves of this previously annual ritual.

Lasts even longer

While most antifoul coatings have a life of just a season or two, increasingly we find the claim that Coppercoat antifouling has a ‘life of 10 years-plus’, is if anything, an understatement.

Looking at recent evidence from UK boat owners, the typical age at which a treatment of Coppercoat is renewed, is after an astonishing 14 years.

And the size of this revolution – the tide of people switching from re-painting their boats every year, to just once every decade or two? We estimate that almost 100,000 boats in the leisure sector alone are treated with Coppercoat.

That’s a lot of people enjoying a drink in the yacht club bar while their fellow members struggle under their boats, rollers in hand, their overalls and face-masks spattered in regular antifoul.

While still very much a DIY product, being applied by roller (though without any of the usual unpleasant fumes associated with antifoul paints), this water-based epoxy is now regularly applied by well over 100 professional boat painting companies across the UK.

Used by the professionals

Indeed, many boatyards report waiting lists for Coppercoat. From Dickies Marine Services on the west coast, to the boatfolk marinas in the south, Suffolk Yacht Harbour in the east, and up into Scotland, it is now common to see multiple craft being treated with Coppercoat simultaneously.

As Neil Hughes, service coordinator at Dickies Marine says: ‘Clients will see us applying Coppercoat to another boat, ask us about the benefits and costs, and invariably conclude that they would like it also. We are in an almost perpetual cycle of quoting and then treating boat after boat.’

It is not just the UK sailing fraternity that is benefiting from the use of this time saving and cost effective choice of antifoul. While Coppercoat is a UK-developed and manufactured product, it enjoys global reach, typically being dispatched to over 70 countries every year.

And how does the coating stand up to the rigours of hard sailing and variations in sea conditions around the world?

The man behind the Clipper Round the World Race, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, says: ‘Our current yachts were treated in 2016. After eight years, three full circumnavigations and approximately 120,000 nautical miles of racing each, the boats are due to go off again, still without any need for repainting.’

For boat owners tired of the hassle and expense of annual antifouling, there is only one proven solution: Coppercoat.

For further information on Coppercoat, visit: www.coppercoat.com