Antifouling Gold Coast

We provide a thorough and professional, yet cost effective antifouling service to ensure your vessel performs to it's maximum capacity and with better fuel efficiency. While your vessel is out of the water it creates an opportunity for have a good visual inspection to check that everything underwater is in good safe working order, and to check there aren’t any major maintenance concerns such as serious osmosis or early signs of electrolysis.

Pro-Care Marine Antifouling Process

• Travel lift boat out of water to hardstand
• Fresh water high pressure cleaner at 3500 p.s.i
• Acid wash above water line to clean brown moustache
• Underwater strainers, grates, skin and "through-hull" fittings thoroughly cleared and cleaned out
• All running gear and hull thouroughly prepared and primed
• Stern legs very thoroughly cleaned, we will trim and turn your leg many times to give us access to make sure we have got every last barnacle, coral worm and mussel out of those hard to get to spots, the bellows are particularly important to be clean and antifouled well as growth can actually cut the rubber when the stern drive is trimmed which will allow water into the gimbal bearing where it will rust and seize in a short time
• International Coatings™ antifouling coatings applied to manufacturers specs
  - Dry Film Thickness (DFT) of 75 microns
• Speedometer inlets cleaned
• Anodes changed if required
• Boat perfectly dry on hardstand before travel lift back to water (14hrs minimum)

Very competitive rates! Click for online quote request

Occasionally when we lift a boat out of the water unforeseen below-water damage may be detected e.g. gouges, hull fractures or osmosis, in such events, we will contact you to discuss the problem and let you decide if you want to proceed with any repairs or upgrades. We would not proceed without your consent.

Maintenance /inspection of your stern drive or pod

We strongly advise having a mechanical service to at least your stern drive/pods while the boat is out of the water.
The engine does not necessarily need to be out of the water to be serviced but it is a good idea to have both done at the same time. This way you will have peace of mind that you won’t have an overheated or failed motor when you go boating.

Anodes should be replaced every 12 months to protect stern leg and props from potentially heavy expensive corrosion.
You may have your own marine mechanic but if you don't we can arrange mechanical works to be carried out by Harts Marine who have over 20 years experience.
We also can arrange outboard motor mechanical service and repair to be carried out by Whitewater marine.

Very competitive rates! Click for online quote request

Prop speed™

Invariably the turbulent water caused by the propellor means it is likely the antifoul applied to the prop will not match the service life of the antifoul applied to the hull.
There are many other benefits of Prop speed™ application such as increased propellor rotation speed (=Speed!) and a marked increase in performance (around 300rpm) and improved fuel efficiency (because of the propellor's "slickness") it is quite a cost effective product to use.
Prop speed™ is also designed to be applied to shafts, rudders, skegs and trim tabs.
read more about Prop speed™

Very competitive rates! Click for online quote request

Pickup and delivery of vessel

We do offer a pick up and return boat service, however if it is possible we do prefer that you do this yourself.
Price for pickup and return delivery is dependent on how far the vessel has to travel and likely time it will take.

Very competitive rates! Click for online quote request

How often should you Antifoul your boat?

Antifoul paint will typically give a service life of 12 months.

Antifouling annually will ensure constant satisfactory service, in terms of fuel efficiency and performance

You should lift your boat out of the water annually to change anodes, service stern legs, check over everything underwater such as skin fittings, props, shaft and rudder bearings etc. to prevent potentially costly damage.

When your vessel is planing the body of the stern drive is out of the water and will become quite warm, when the vessel is off the plane and the stern leg is back into the sea it gets cool again, this heating and rapid cooling effects the qualities and effectiveness of the antifoul, and it is particularly important that the stern drive is protected well with antifoul.

Sandblasting

After many years (around 12-15) of annual recoating of antifoul, old antifoul can become brittle and weak in structure this happens because there are resins and solids that are designed to dissolve out of the antifoul paint during its life. Your boat will be at this point when you notice a lot of flaky, loose and cracking old antifoul.

Once the boat is at this stage it is time to remove the old antifoul by sandblasting and then starting again by firstly applying a 2 pack epoxy primer then a single pack vinylestor barrier coat.

Very competitive rates! Click for online quote request

Types of antifoul coatings used

Ablative antifoul coatings and hard antifoul coatings offer the same 12 months service life.
Ablative antifoul coatings work best if your vessel is used often, at least once a fortnight, because the antifoul self-polishes as it moves through the water.

A hard antifoul has a slower release of copper and is more suited to vessels that spend a lot of time tied up at pontoons.

If you are unsure of what type of coating was applied previously we are experts at matching new antifoul coatings to previous coats.

First time antifoul treatment process

For boats which have never been antifouled before a special treatment is required.

Very competitive rates! Click for online quote request

While you vessel is out of the water, it is also a great opportunity to:

• Buff polish/wax the hull
  - (we can Buff polish/wax topsides while on hardstand or back where your boat lives in the water; see our boat detailing webpage for more info.
• Raise antifoul line if required
• Apply or replace boot line striping vinyl stickers or other hull graphics
• Install bow thrusters
• Install underwater illumination

Very competitive rates! Click for online quote request