Boat Maintenance

The number of marine wax products on the market is staggering, and Practical Sailor has commissioned a series of projects to help readers make sure they get the best and longest wax protection for their money and effort. Our most recent full-fledged wax test ran for little over a year, with the results posted in the Nov. 15, 2004 issue. A test of cleaner-waxes-a different animal-was carried out in 2006-2007, with Star brite Heavy Duty Cleaner Wax and Restructure Marine Cleaner Wax coming out on top (Practical Sailor November 2007). Prior to those tests, a series of articles dealing with gelcoat protection were published. Two are posted online at www.practical-sailor.com under the "Tools and Techniques" section: "Plastics Versus Weather: The Nature of a Losing Battle," an interesting read for those curious about the chemical battles between your boat and the environment; and Nick Nicholsons "Offshore Log: Gelcoat Maintenance," some hard-earned how-to-tips on gelcoat maintenance.

Headlamps compliment rather than compete with traditional hand-held flashlights. Lighting of more than one kind is invaluable on board, and headlamps have the advantage of freeing up the two hands of the sailor who always seems to need a third. Our test focused on LED headlamps that claimed water resistance and featured a crosshead strap for comfort, and did not require a battery recharge. We tested 17 headlamps from six manufacturers: Icon from Black Diamond, a rock-climbing and skiing gear maker; the HeadsUp Recoil 2680 from Pelican, maker of all things watertight; and Vizion from Underwater Kinetics, along with four headlamps from Petzl, five from Princeton Tec, and five from Streamlights. Our top picks were based on wearing, testing and using these headlamps for months. Best Choice honors go to the Black Diamond Icon, a lightweight lamp thats versatile and loaded with features. Recommended products include the feature-laden red-filter-equipped Petzl Tactikka and the lightweight, Lithium-powered Streamlight Argo HP. The Pelican outshone others on pure brightness.

Practical Sailor tests products touted as environmentally friendly and compares the shades of green of some of the best performing products on the market. Previously, we have looked closely at power generating and power saving equipment such as solar and wind generators, and we will continue to test these in future articles. This article focuses on pollution, waste, and proactive measures that reduce the impact of the foul things that are sluiced, rinsed, or sanded off our boats, or pumped out of them. Products reviewed in this article include copper-free bottom paints: E-Paints zinc-based EP-2000, E-Paint EP-21, E-Paint ZO; Sea Hawk ablative Mission Bay CF and Mission Bay CSF; Pettit Alumacoat SR, and Vivid Free; and Interlux Pacifica. Water-based copper paints Pettit Hydrocoat, Flexdel Aquagard, and Interlux Fiberglass Bottomkote Aqua were also examined. Next up we look at biodegradable paint strippers including Back-to-Nature Ready Strip and Aqua Strip; Pettit Bio-Blast; Franmar Soy Strip; Bio-Blast; Dumond Chemicals Peel Away Smart Strip; EcoSolve; and CitriStrip. We compared the effectiveness and shades of green of Descalers including: Barnacle Buster from Trac Ecological; Rydlyme Marine from Apex Engineering; Star brite Zebra Mussel and Barnacle Remover; and MaryKate On & Off. Finally we looked at waterline stain removers and hull cleaners including: Spray Nine Boat Bottom Cleaner; Captain Johns Boat Brite Algae and Waterline Stain Remover; Rydlyme; Prime Filters Mineral-O-Magic; and Nautical Ease Nonskid Deck Cleaner and Black Streak Remover.

Just to put things into proper perspective: When it comes to water-bound polluters, sailors are the smallest of small fries. But a search for proper perspective on environmental issues can be maddening. Whenever I dig deeply into the topic, I soon find myself far down a rabbit hole conversing with hatters and griffins. The surging movement of "green" consumerism is particularly sticky. At the surface, the trend inspires hope. The wider non-sailing marketplace is finally reflecting sailors long-held concern for the environment, and manufacturers are responding to this development (and some tough legislation) by offering what they deem eco-friendly products. Conveniently, some of the green products actually cost less than the products they replace. Even better, most are far safer to use. But measuring the environmental impact of any product defies simplification, particularly if you want to gauge the products carbon footprint, the amount of carbon that is pumped into the atmosphere as a result of the product during its life. Add to this mix an unscrupulous marketer out to make a buck, and the truth becomes even murkier.

Most of us have a soft spot for a boat with fresh, beautiful brightwork on a teak deck-unless its your boat. Than the brightwork is just that: work-something that is synonymous with boat maintenance. In this, our fourth installment in our ongoing look at exterior wood finishes, Practical Sailor focuses on the application of teak oils and sealers. Testers evaluated eight products for ease of preparation, ease of application, number of coats recommended, recoat time, and finish. The products were: Dalys Seafin Teak Oil, Deks Olje No.1, Interlux Premium Teak Oil, Le Tonkinois Huiles Bio Impression, MDR Amazons Golden Teak Oil, Semco Teak Sealer, Star brite Premium Golden Teak Oil, and Star brite Tropical Teak Sealer. The Interlux Premium Teak Oil and Semco ranked as the top easy-to-apply teak oils. The inexpensive Star brites Premium Golden Teak Oil got the Budget Buy nod. Ratings were for initial results only as we wait for results from the second part of the evaluation, the durability test, for the final rankings. Long-term test may find that the more difficult a product is to apply, the longer it lasts. Also included in the search for a long-lasting wood finish are dozens of one-part varnishes, two-part varnishes, synthetic wood coatings, and wood stains. Stay tuned to see which products make the all-star list of the best wood finishes.

Our last test of bottom paint strippers (November 2006) saw Franmar Soy Strip edge out perennial favorite Peel Away Marine Safety Strip bottom paint remover to become the Practical Sailor Best Choice in this boat maintenance category. After that review, we heard from several Practical Sailor subscribers who reported less-than stellar results from using the Franmar Soy Strip to remove their bottom-paint buildup. Conversations with the readers and manufacturers suggested that performance is greatly affected by ambient temperature. This convinced us of the need to retest the Franmar in cooler conditions than those of the 2006 test (a humid, 85-degree Virginia day). Reader reports also alerted us to a new paint remover from Peel Away maker Dumond Chemicals Inc. Manufactured as a private-labeled product, West Marine Paint Remover was released after our last test and so has not been in Practical Sailor tests before. And so it was that testers decided on a test between the two eco-friendly paint removers: the 2006 favorite Franmar and the West Marine antifoulant stripper.

In July 2006, Practical Sailor testers began a long-term bottom paint comparison between Interlux Micron Optima and Sea Hawk Monterey, two semi-hard ablative paints that are self-polishing, meaning that water movement during normal sailing cleans growth that may be trying to gain a foothold on the hull. The test platform is a Norfolk, Va.-based Union 36, a full keel, heavy displacement sailboat whose cruising area is primarily the Chesapeake Bay and Intracoastal Waterway in Virginia and North Carolina. The boats hull, below the waterline, was divided into four equal sections, giving both bottom paints equal exposure: Sea Hawk was applied to the starboard bow and port aft section, while Micron Optima was applied to the port bow and starboard aft sections. Each section received three coats of its respective bottom paint, plus an additional coat at the waterline. Since its launch in July 2006, the test boat has seen normal use, ranging from monthly weekend and day trips to several weeklong cruises.

Testing of hard and soft bottom paint in a Florida saltwater canal and a boatyard dock in Long Island Sound show that nearly all existing antifouling paints provide exceptional protection against hard growth for one season. The devil is in the detail of how well the paints hold up against the build-up of soft marine organisms, and for how long they will ward off barnacles. Although almost all of the paints Practical Sailor tested rated fair or good after 6 months, only one paint was rated excellent: Ablative/copolymer Micron 66 from Interlux. Although no paints garnered an excellent rating at18-months, Practical Sailor found several paints that continued to perform fairly well. Manufacturers try to provide protection against hard and soft growth while balancing environmental impact, regulatory concerns and rising prices in raw materials. Practical Sailor also rated the test paints by category: not only hard and soft paints, but also eco-friendly and water-based paints and looked at the performance of paints within each category.Products tested include: Micron 66, Copper Shield, EP 2000, Epaint, Epoxycop, Fiberglass Bottomkote, Ultra-Coat, Super KL, VC Offshore, Regatta Baltoplate Racing, Interlux Ultra, VC 17m Extra, Pettit Unepoxy Plus, Super Premium, Vivid, Trinidad, SR-21, Seahawk Tropikote, Tropikote Biocode Plus, Sharkskin, Bluewater Kolor, Epaint Zo, Flexdel Aquaguard Bottom Paint, Aquaguard Alumi-Koat, Super Ship Bottom, Epoxycop Ablative, Micron CSC, Trilux, Phasecoat, Hydrocoat, Horizons, Alumacoat, Ultima SR, Monterey, Mission Bay CSF, AF 33, Biocop, Cukote, Interlux, Pettit, Blue Water MarPro, Seahawk, and West Marine.

Chances are good that anyone who owns or has worked on a vessel equipped with an iron keel has at one point or another come across products that, "turn rust back into sound metal," or make other similar and often impossible-sounding claims. The question is: Do they work, and is this the best approach for an iron keel? Make no mistake about it, iron is cheap, and thats the primary reason for its use where keels and centerboards are concerned. Lead is nearly always preferred, at least for ballast keels, because its denser and weighs more for a given volume than iron, and it doesn't corrode. Some vessels use bronze as a centerboard material, and while its not as dense as iron, all sailors know it does not corrode. Irons use as a ballast keel or centerboard material comes at a price, a price that is paid over the life of the vessel by its owner or owners. If the iron is not properly isolated from the water in which the vessel floats, it rusts prodigiously. Some studies have shown that an inch of iron will create 16 inches of shale rust. The insidious nature of the way in which iron rusts is often its, or the vessel owners, undoing. Unlike steel, which tends to slough off as it rusts, iron often retains its shape, rusting from the inside out. Thus, it may look sound, however, a sharp blow from a hammer may release huge chunks of material. This type of decay is referred to as graphitization because graphite residue is all that remains.

There’s no shortage of teak cleaning products on the market, but what works? Practical Sailor put nine stand-alone teak cleaning products to work on the decks of a weathered test boat. Cleaning duo products that clean and brighten were separated out for a future test. All products we tested cleaned quite well, so we looked beyond performance to eco-friendliness, harshness, ease of use, and price. We recommend the top eco-friendly ones, best priced, and the easiest to use. Products tested include Captain John’s Boat Brite, Dalys Seafin teak cleaner, Interlux Premium, Iosso teak Cleaner, Star Brite Teak Cleaner and West Marine One-Step Teak Cleaner.