bertram31.com

http://www.neverwet.com/videos-news.php

Take a look at the first video. When this stuff becomes available to the general public, it may be the answer to protecting our props from growth. It looks like it is super slick and really durable. They hit this stuff with pressure washer for an hour or so they say and it still works.

Tony- Can this stuff be bought? Imagine taking all your bottom paint off and painting your bottom with it. Bet you'll add 5 knots.

looks like cool stuff

Walter, in theory the boat would not be in contact with the water. Right?

Basically, that's what I mean. Almost all friction would be gone, especially when moving.

I want it. Now!

I wonder if barnacles ,worms or slime would stick to it every specimen they used Was household or organic products nothing living in the sea world.

Based on what I can understand, slime would slip off from the simple pressure created by running. As far as barnacles are concerned, they have to be able to grip. A spinning shaft or prop should hurl them off if it works as per the demos. Boy, would I love to get my hands on a can or two just to try as a replacement for the clear antifouling that has been outlawed.

If it works on glass then the bottom of a boat should not be all that different. I run 90 miles offshore. If I get two knots I could back off and go the same speed and save big dollars on fuel. At 5$ a gal it would pay for that stuff fast. Also less stress on the engines.

That's exactly what I have saying for years. (same speed less rpm's)at 5 bucks it is important!,,,,

Walter

According to the web site, it will not be available to the general product until mid 2012.

Brewster brings up a good point, will the boat be in contact with the water. Now if you watched the vidio, they treated the edge of the glass with the stuff and put water in the middle and it pooled up.

If this stuff is that slick, and we put it on the bottom of the hull, and yes I realize the boat floats based on displacement, will it actually sink until the untreated part of the hull hits the water. Interesting concept. Think about it. This stuff seems so slick it is scary. I don't thinkwe ahve ever seen anything this slick.

I was thinking the barnacles would slide off the props, shafts etc. We need a test boat. One that we don't care if it sinks. Put this stuff on the bottom and drop it in the water and see if it sinks or floats as normal.

I never thought the boat would sink. But I see what you are saying. We need somebody who is very smart to tell us what this stuff means.

i don't think it would effect buoyancy as surface tension has little to do with it at floating boat scale. now if a hollow BB would float it might sink coated with this stuff. maybe. or float lower.

Gentlemen-
I'm not familiar with the stuff in the link but have chased this miracle cure once before.
Back in the late 80's when we first got our hands on the progenitor to this stuff http://www.mclubemarine.com/. We had been using either plain gelcoat or burnished Baltoplate for sailboat bottoms. We got the bug that there was some "juice" that would make us go faster and win us trophies. To understand the times, Dennis Conner's America's Cup campaign had been developing "riblets" which were like sheets of stretchy contact paper with teeny tiny (cause I don't remember the actual size) ridges. They had gone beyond just the surface tension challenge to trying to use the high/low pressure areas of the hull and pitching movement to help "swim" the boat forward.... In our cohort we genuinely believed there were big gains to be made with the bottoms of our boats. That, and pitchers of Mudslides after too much time long-boarding, had us believing we were on the cusp of something great.

Despite the intellectual and emotional immaturity indicated above, I do believe we were capable of giving it a good try. With a 10,000 pound boat we knew within 5 mil of where it would float and registered the difference in buoyancy between Block Island and Key West water. We did not record any change based upon bottom coating. Even if there had been no speed advantage to the coating, if a lighter boat floated deeper in the water I think we would have found that down to 1% of weight.
In the end the net effect was that we had all done the best job we could fairing the bottom and foils. We were not able to determine any significant gains from one juice over another and somehow a 400-600 wet sanded (in the direction of flow) or fresh gel coat surface was regarded at the "best". We went back to obsessing over removing weight from the ends of the boat and, oh yeah, paying attention to the set-up of the rigging.
I'd be delighted to see something like this come along that would add 5% to the efficiency of our boats. But I believe-
1- for this type of stuff to work the bottom and all surfaces should be automotive finish level fair
2- don't expect it to last even a New England length season (I'm not sure exactly why I believe this I just do)
3- someone from a state agency is going to be interested in how I apply it, where the overspray goes, etc.
4- it will be expensive if for no other reason that it represents a significant value proposition.

I also believe-
5- if I faired the bejesus out of the bottom.
6- moved the zincs to the transom out of the flow
7- took the toe out of the rudders
8- took 500 lbs out of the boat
9- did whatever else is within my ability (if not budget)
I’d get 5% better performance.
And somehow my sailor-boy ass has probably offended Bob Lico so I’ll end by starting my apology…

I'm sure the tree huggers and frog and turtle people are going to love this. Probably endangers the lefttoed squab.

If it don't leach, it's inert like your fiberglass is. Far better for them than an ablative paint

Stephan I think you are 100% right. I also race sailboats and we are all looking for gains, no matter how marginal. It is amazing how many % there can be just being on the right side of the course, calling the shifts nad being on the right side of the tideline! Somehow the same guys win no matter what they are sailing...

If we all keep our engines in tune, props un-dented and bottoms clean, that is pretty good right there!

When I posted this I never thought of using it to make the bottom slicker and pick up speed.

Actually in order to pick up speed you would have to probably dimple the bottom. Think of a golf ball, the dimples help cut down on the resitance.

I also remember a bottom paint with teflon in it. You would burnish it to get it supper smooth and slick. I don't think it really helped that much.

You some how have to break the surace tension to pick up speed. Not sure thsi would do it, but would love to find out.

I don't think they will have much luck selling this stuff if the price is much more than $15 for lets say a 12 to 16 ounce spray bottle. So I put the price at about the same as Corrision X. Lets see what the next few months bring.

Already on it tony .we have a 33' Bertram doing 42 knots powered by cats . Right now on the hard at mattituck long island yard.bottom is covered I don't want to be accused of being speed
Freak.