This bulletin board, hosted by the CDSOA, Inc., is the on-line meeting place for all Cape Dory owners and groups. We welcome everyone's questions, answers and comments about Cape Dory sailboat
Mitch, I enjoy your humorous posts, you must be a very funny guy in person. All I can say is the mussels loved it and left the pilings in droves to feast on my bottom. They seem to prefer it with a healthy dose of cuprous oxide mixed in well and served at the same temperature as the red wine in the wine cellar -- which as you know is bilge water temperature.
For what it's worth (I know some on this board do not care for the Practical Sailor tests)....they found no difference in most of the high priced stuff versus the lower priced product....at least with the ablative stuff...the hard stuff was different. I have always used an expensive ablative, either Micron CSC Extra or last year Pettit Ultima. This year, I am going with the Pettit Horizons ($89.99 at Defender)...that's almost half the price. I'll let you know how it works......
In the past, how often do you put a new coat of bottom paint on? I haul out and repaint every two years. Usually I don't see growth until the second season in the water. But with skyrocketing prices on Micron Extra I've been considering moving down to a less expensive ablative.
I typically have hauled every season and in the spring, slap on a coat of paint....don't like to sand, so I don't...just slap on another coat over the old one, which usually has mostly worn away. My base coat is blue, and I use red over it so I can tell when it's getting thin...the Ultima I used last year held up pretty good, only a few spots of blue showing....maybe could get another season out of it, but it's thin...since I haul every year, I am going down to the cheaper stuff, which I think will work just as well on a yearly basis. I suspect if you put the expensive stuff on thick enough, you can get two seasons out of it. In your case, it might be worth the extra money for the Micron CSC....but it wouldn't hurt to try the ACT if you like the Interlux product...I stuck with Pettit because the original owner of my boat used it...