DHutch

That's a bit better! Our curbside waste (which goes to the same place) won't even accept plastic trays or yogurt pots. The only plastic we can recycle curbside is bottles. We offload our plastic trays to our parents who both live in different neighboring counties who do. Cheshire and N Wales. Bonkers isn't it. Yeah, that's what happens here. Local unadopted road (public, no houses off it) is the prime candidate. Anything from two bags for life full of tins an bottles, via a soiled mattress, to a Transit tipper full of mixed green waste and hardcore. Council has its own website for reporting flytipping.

Fair enough. I guess you could invest in a 110v to 240v step up transformer. But it's a bit old fashioned and inconvenient.

Or local tip recycling centre (Veolia, Bidston) has a LED display at the end of the queue to get in which proudly displays that they manage to recycle less than half of what turns up to the site.... ....apparently this year it fell again, from 35% ten years ago to now only being 30%... ... the target was 50% by 2020! https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/23681117.recycling-rates-wirral-branded-dismal-scathing-report/

We are doing it ourselves, yes. Rightly or wrongly we have always done the job DIY which I think is a mixed of sort of enjoying it, being a glutton for punishment, and being a bit anxious and or neurotic! However having watched Matt paint your boat when we where on last time, I can also confirm he does a bloody good job and takes care in his work. More so than other boatyards I have seen. Daniel

Yes!

I don't know, but I do wonder if a low speed centrifugal fan might be better for creating a low flow rate against a reasonable resistance. Obviously it slightly depends on the ventilation afforded by your bilge already, and or if you are trying to vent the whole bilge, or just the bit at the back it tends to run back into! But yeah, otherwise, try isolating it with a bit of that foam. ....because you already have one elsewhere.

Quelle surprise.. On one level I understand it to a certain extent, and compared to a short term Marina mooring it isn't even that bad, however it does come over as unfriendly and with current interest rates I can see it being only a matter of time before the sign department gets some more work! Liverpool docks was one of the first places where you could pay to extend your stay in an otherwise time limited mooring, and where space etc allows it appears a reasonable business model and adds to the overall flexibility options.

Very interesting. At 36 I certainly feel like I am one of the younger ones boating on the system, but I also expect that the majority of those who received/completed survey will be boat owners (as per the op) rather than boaters as a whole, as most younger folk on the canal will either be hiring or using family owned boat. Disclaimer; I believe it was me who completed the survey for our boat. Daniel

Great news. Thanks for posting back. We are on dock next week and I am looking forward to seen how our test patches from 2019 look and for the first time switch the entire boat over to Epoxy blacking from the high performance pitch/coaltar free vinyl product we have been using for the last 30 years.

Right, well, we have just ordered a load of Jotamastic 90. One tin of the 90 AL to touch up any bare metal areas, and a coat on the baseplate, and three tins of Black to do two coats both sides and the second coat on the base plate. Hopefully all goes well!

Yeah, and I completely understand that, but this is about going onto predominantly sound existing coating, after high pressure water jetting, rather than onto bare or rusted steel. Hence compatibility with the existing vinyl coating is the foremost consideration.

Ooo, good spot! And very interesting. Obviously someone must make it, and I had got a feeling it wasnt Jotun. Interestingly, because its what Northwich drydock used before moving over to Jotamastic, we did actually do a significant test patch of the Epidac HB, both the ali and the black, on the base plate four years ago. Obviously I don't get to inspect that till next week, however we have no issues with the paints reacting. Elsewhere on this forum Dacrylate have stated "Epidac 2 HB Epoxy 90-294 is designed to go over all existing coatings (except bitumen), even those of other manufacturers" which fits with what most people have said about most epoxy paints going over most coatings anyway, certainly if the are 'aged' having been on a few years. Also slightly interesting as one of the main reasons I believe Northwich DD moved away from the Epidac is poor colour retention, which has also been suggested of the SML blacking. If it got damp before fully curing (touch dry paint getting silver/grey spots and runs on it if it rained even lightly) which is an issue for them as there is no roof on the dock.

@Dacrylate Paints Ltd It appears the website has yet to be significantly updated. Perhaps as a reference you could detail a suitable distributor here and or upload the relevant datasheets to the forum?

Doing a bit more digging, and I have found Internationals "Intertuf 203" which appears to be a very similar one-pack vinyl product to what we have used in the past. Availability appears to be somewhat limited, and restricted to 20L tins, but given we where likely going to buy 15-20L anyway that should be ok. Prices appear to fluctuate from £317 to £690 but assuming you can you pick the lower end its around £16-18/L https://www.mylorchandlery.co.uk/antifouling-paint/international-intertuf-203/

Due to go on dock shortly, our second time using Northwich, looking forward to it! Cant recommend enough. I also believe Middlewich drydock is available for hire again which is nice/

Leaning towards going straight on with the Jotamastic. SML are sending me out their free 'test kit' (basically a rag soaked in epoxy thinners) to stick on the side of the boat for a bit. Assuming it passes, hopefully we are good for most 2pack epoxy products and can continue with an additive coating rescheme. Daniel

Northwich DD is currently £350/week for a narrowboat which I think its a great price. Wigan DD doesn't have any power provision, and is in Wigan. Northwich is secure, has power, and a 15hp 3ph pressure washer. Pros and cons to both of cause, but there is more to it than you suggest.

Current prices as follows, prices inc VAT. SML Ballastic Epoxy black £92.34 per 5l or £18.50/litre Jotamastic 87 (in black) £82.75 per 4.5l or £17.60/litre (from SML, or £89/4.5 at Paints4trade) Jotamastic 90 (in black) £92.60 per 4.5l or £20.80/litre (from SML, same price at Paints4trade) Jotamastic 90AL (silver) £87.18 per 4.5l or £19.20/litre (from SML) Sherwin Williams L524 £96.56 per 4L or £24.00/litre (from SW Online, a subset of Paints4Trade) Sherwin Williams M902 £178.87 per 5L or £25.80/litre (SW online) or £68.36 per 2l so £24.20/litre which is a nice amount for just touching up bare metal scratches etc.

I guess this is where theory and practice meet. Is there anything special about the SML branded product? Or is it just they have done more testing, and or pushing the limits, hence are happy to market it more confidently? Because they understand it is a product type that people are interested in. Sherwin Williams (Leigh's Paints) technical person suggested their otherwise recommended L524 Epoxy would be risky over our existing M535 Vinyl, and that their M902 Aluminium Epoxy would be a safer bet as it's higher solids at 75% vs 64%. Coupled with the fact the coating is now four years old, and we have used it before for repairing over bare metal areas without issue. But it's also significantly more expensive. SW don't have anything in their current range they would recommend/endorse over coating their discontiuned Vinyl product with. Apparently the M535 'pitch-free vinyl underwater primer' while suitable for a final finish was predominantly offered as a tiecoat for antifouling, and has been discontinued as they have discontinued the whole AF range. The SML Ballastic Epoxy is also 75% solids. However the Jotumastic range is an 80% solids product. Jotuns technical person was again cautious about the risks of putting two pack over single pack and getting a reaction between the products, and reiterated that it isn't something you would advise or gain benefit from intially doing. Obviously where not doing it as a planned system! However also somewhat seemed to agree that their product being relatively high solids would mean somewhat reduced solvent incompatibly risk. They do a vinyl tiecoat product, but it contains aluminium so is silver in finish and unlike the M535 not recommended for a final coating. They also have 'Pioner' a single pack with good colour retention you can use as a topcoat for cosmetic appearance, but if you do, its then not advised to apply further Jotumastic over it in the future. They also said that the original product was the Jotumastic 87, that the 80 is a cost-down product to be competitive against other lower costs epoxies, and that the 90 was predominantly introduced to be tintable to a wide range of colours. Hence for blacking or Aluminium base coat there is no advantage to the 90 over the 87. Also confirmed their is no benefit in applying the aluminium other than directly to the steel. Apologies for the long post, but it's all interesting information. In summary, I'm left unsure if the SML Balastic epoxy is actually any more tolerant over our existing Vinyl than the Jotumastic 87/90 would be? With some suggestion it might otherwise be an inferior product. Obviously it would be nice to do some test patches, but at £90 for 5L and only a week on drydock, you basically have to make a call in advance!

If you shotblast to bright, your range of options is very wide, and is likely an epoxy aluminium followed by epoxy blacking. However what SML advertise with the Ballastic Epoxy is that it is 'Compatible with most aged coatings' including bitumen, vinyl, chlorinated rubber, etc. Which is in contrast to most epoxy blacking, where the technical advise is that it is not tested or recommended for that use. I don't know who makes the product, but I too believe it is indeed manufactured for them by someone else, although I doubt it it Jotun.

Ok, that's all very interesting. Thanks for posting back. You said in your first post the the hull was 'throughly hand preped' and mentioned vactan, did you bare metal and vactan the whole hull? With some coating retained in a few pits, or what there a good amount of coating retention in other areas? Brittle is basically bad in any paint I think, but particularly the hull coating on a narrowboat or similar where there is not only contact, but often new coating on to old, increasing thickness. Soft and well bonded is what you want. We've never used bitumen, and originally used a full two pack system. But following advise Leigh's Paints my grandfather switched to their M535 one pot Vinyl which has worked very well, it sticks, gots fairly hard, but doesn't flake or crack at all. I would carry on using it for another 30 years if I could still buy it, or find an appropriately similar alternative. However sadly high performance underwater one pot coatings seem very thin on the ground. Hence we have a boat, with zero rust, and a really pretty good coat of vinyl blacking pretty much all over, which after four years needs a bit of touching up and then two new coats all ov r. Just need something which can be used over the vinyl! Else it's shot blasting off a lot of sound paint, with all the cost and faff that entails. Hence not considering that option.

I certainly will, it's Northwich Drydock we're using.

Interested in this topic as we are also considered using the Ballastic Epoxy. Having intially used a two pack epoxy system from new, onto shot blasted steel, for the last 30 years we have used a high quality vinyl blacking which we have been very happy with. The performance of an epoxy without the faff of a two pack product. Unfortunately it's been discontinued and we are struggling to find a direct replacement. Hence we're now looking at options for what will go over the vinyl and give the performance we are accustomed too. The Ballastic potentially looks the best for far. I've had conversations with the technical departments of both Sherwin Williams (Liegh's Paints) who previously supplied our paint, and Jotun, who where both nervous about suggesting any of their products. I'm planning to phone SML later today. If the colour retention is better, maybe as suggested above, a coat of the Ballastic for the previous coating tolerance and the a coat of Jotumastic 90 or 87 for colour retention. And in future, just recoat with the Jotumastic every four years. Have you had her out to inspect yet?

One for @RichM to look into, his time permitting.

Anderton isn't bad for this. All the way to Middlewich, and one stoplock to Manchester.