It will be interesting to see the results. I spoke with a paint and coatings expert about a year ago about solvent-based vs water-based epoxies and learned that the main reason that we here in the USA have so many nasty solvent-based paints and coatings is simply because the USA companies managed to protect IP with patents for numerous solvent-based products whereas in Europe other non-solvent based systems are patented and thus used. Strange, eh?
Our hard, non-ablative, copper bottom paint is called "water based" but actually is alcohol based (water clean-up).
This spring, I happened to have the opportunity to speak with folks in the California regulatory agency that regulates bottom paint. They're the same folks that regulate pesticides, btw. Copper being the big California issue; the person I spoke with stated that they did not think bottom paints with copper in them would be banned statewide but rather that bottom paint manufacturers would be limited in the quantity of copper that could be put in bottom paint. An example was given in which the paint mfr knowingly puts twice the needed content of copper simply to get an immediate "wow!" factor when the user first uses their bottom paint. Purely a marketing ploy. This is unnecessary and harmful to the environment as excessive copper oxides are released. Further action is being taken and considered to preclude divers from scrubbing bottoms within a certain number of months after painting (too much copper released) and to preclude divers from ever scrubbing ablative bottom paints at all. Interesting times. Albeit, many marinas sit on top of piles of waste from decades of cleaning, painting, etc all in a small area. What happened in the past is still with us. But, I must note that most copper showing up in the urban areas (which include California harbors, bays, and marinas) in the USA comes from copper in brake pads and in other industrial uses. The automotive industry is very gradually phasing out the use of copper in brake pads (seems like it is 10 or 20 years...something crazy long considering better alternatives actually exist today...) and unfortunately, tree-huggers (and I suppose we can call the folks interested in preserving out waterways "eel grass lovers"?) are really focused on the recreational marine use of copper rather than automotive use and run-off from streets into the waterways. I'm all for hugging trees and protecting marine life, don't get me wrong--I'm just frustrated when folks focus on the wrong targets.
JeanneP--what sort of bottom paint do you presently use on MV Watermelon?
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