PropSpeed Propellor anti-fouling coating

[walterzoy]

Everyone says that PropSpeed anti-fouling for props and shafts is the best product to keep your propellor clean for up to one year or more.

The marina where I haul out my boat (just outside of Baltimore) is offering a free coating of PropSpeed as part of their winter storage package.

What is this stuff made of -Gold Dust - a tiny kit coats about $200.00!!! So I do not mind paying the $25.00 per foot for the haul and dry land storage this winter.

Has anyone tried to coat their keel or hull or engine seawater intake with the stuff? It is difficult to believe that any product will keep a prop barnacle free here on the Chesapeake.

Over the years, I have used Trinidad, Pettit Zinc Barrier Coating, Tri-lux - you name it and the barnacles are back in several weeks on anything underwater that is made of metal?

I am excited about having a clean prop during the summer sailing season. I am too old to go overboard to clean my prop every couple of weeks!

If anyone has used this product on the Chesapeake - let us know how it worked on your prop.

Walter Catalina 30 Baltimore

[aa3jy]

Had this stuff applied to my prop..and I've dived on it several times this past summer and it works..

Regards,

Clay
s/v 'Tango'
Oxford,Md.

[eryka]

We put it on June 2009 and its like Teflon - barnacles slide right off. Its still doing very well, 16 months and 3000+ miles later.

[jrd22]

I have not used the Prop Speed but this might be a cheaper option. I spray the prop and shaft with Trilux anti foul paint that is designed for aluminum outdrives on power boats and it seems to work very well. I rough up the surface with a Scotch Brite pad and then prime with that yellow zinc chromate and then a couple of coats of the Trilux. 2+ years and no barnacles (or anything else) here in the PNW (cold water). About $20 for a can of it, a little less for the primer. Obviously, you don't paint the zincs.

[chef2sail]

Used it 11/2 years ago and it really works well.

[walterzoy]

I have been watching the boats coming out at Old Bay Marina for winter storage and the boats that they put Prop Speed on all have barnacle free props!! Many of the boats have badly fouled hulls -but the props and shafts are amazingly clean!

The boats without Prop Speed have barnacles and marine growth fouling their props.

Everyone on Sailnet says this stuff works - now I have seen it so with my own eyes. Steve, the yard guy at Old Bay likes it because he does not have to waste time with a putty knife scraping the prop and shaft.

Steve likes Prop Speed so much that he is supplying it free to all of his winter haulout customers, you just pay him for his labor to sand and prep the prop and he gives you the Prop Speed for free. He said that he buys it by the case and gets a better deal than you can get on line. He said that the mark-up is very high -- with a small Tuna Fish size can costing $200, but he gets it at wholesale cost.

Walter Catalina 30 Baltimore

[chef2sail]

Haleakula<---------- swears by the stuff

[Janssen]

Yesterday with the warm spell, I was over at Old Bay Marina and they pulled a boat for a quick-haul. The boat's bottom was full of brown winter slime and leftover barnacle fouling from last season.

But the prop was perfectly clean, they told me that they put Prop Speed treatment on it last spring. One year in the water and a perfectly clean prop - while the rest of the boat had fouling!

Last season Old Bay was offering Prop Speed free with a haul-out and bottom painting package. I quess they save so much labor not needing to clean off thier customer's props and shafts that they come out even?

Has anyone tried Sea Hawk's version of Prop Speed?

George

[Plumbean]

Any issues using this stuff with a geared, folding prop?

[Fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Plumbean

Any issues using this stuff with a geared, folding prop?

I doubt it would stay on the actual teeth of a geared folder, but I see Martec Eliptec props coated with PropSpeed all the time.