Bottom Paint

[PLKennedy]

Some in the know has suggested using regular house pain with a cup of tetracicline added.  If it works, think of the possibilities, with all the pastels to choose from.  "With her guns rolled out and manned, Marines clinging on the uppermost reaches of her rigging, we could see her pink waterline through the frothing water....."

Peter   :eek:

[Stu Jackson]

Peter and Susan

You bring back old memories.  When we had our C22 on a lake about three hours north of here for summer seasons, we NEVER even bothered to use bottom paint!  The boat was trailer sailed during the winter months on San Francisco Bay, but kept in the water at the lake all summer.  At the end of the season, we'd bring the retractable keeled boat to a place called Bottom Scrub.  They had this nifty "underwater car wash" that would scrub all the crud off the bottom, and we'd trailer home clean as a whistle.

Two full keel boats later that isn't so helpful!

Interestingly enough, there is a spring fitting out article in the April issue of Cruising World magazine, that addresses your question.  

They say in the article's sidebar: "Homegrown additives such as spices and antibiotics may actually have the opposite effect from that which is intended.  These additives may upset the paint's binder balance or impair the release of biocides.  Paint manufacturers and chemists spend lots of time and money creating effective antifoulants.  There's a good chance that they tested Jimbo's Red Hot Cajun Chili Pepper Sauce and found that most bottom critters don't mind the taste."

While this is applicable to antifouling paint, it seems to me that if your friend's idea was so great, we should be seeing housepainters roaming our docks in search of business.  Hasn't happened yet.

I do like the pink idea.  If you combine that with Ron's suggestion for using different colors to know when what you have is about to vanish, you could start a new trend.

Basic moral is use the stuff that works.  I have had good experience with Compound X, which seemed to have extended the life of a one and a half bottom coat for six months.