Ever have that feeling of déjà vu, that feeling of familiarity that you have seen something before?
Back in 11 August 2018, we replied to a Facebook post on Sailing Totem about plastic consumption and the question we answered to was: “What does it take to just say "no"?”. We discussed how we had a plastic boat and use an extremely large amount of plastic material to maintain it and could not just say “no” to plastic. In response, they must of checked our FB profile and/or website as one of their comments back was our boat has a "shiny paint job". The picture below was included with our "jovial" next response.
The picture outlines what we used for Indra's bottom job: All paint removed. West System 105 Epoxy Resin with 206 Hardener base coat applied. Barrier coat of 5 layers using Interlux InterProtect HS. CopperCoat with five layers applied.
The comment reads as follows:
Kudos to reuse and recycle, we are in the same boat, as ours too was old, yet new to us! Regrettably our naive choice of a plastic boat ensured a future inordinate consumption of that despicable material, far beyond our land loving inured brethren.
Aye, truth be told, guilty as charged, the paint be new and shiny, but at what cost to us and our beloved mother earth? For our penance, seeking not to transgress as often, we opted to try CopperCoat as we succumbed to the propaganda of 10-15-plus years before beaching our hull again – time will bear the truth if the nemesis of the sea favors our intrusion.
About 1 1/2 years passed to purge the scurvy (osmosis) as we served our time in purgatory of 90+ heat/humidity. Attached is affirmation of our grievous transgressions. In our wake, we hold no illusions, that the residue left behind will cause no harm.
When questioned about the legality of copper in bottom paint, we advised others to go check the CopperCoat website to see the EPA compliance as it is actually less harmful than standard ablatives and lasts much, much longer; but costs a bit more. One poster commented, "SV Indra nailed it" and Totem's response back was, "Not really." Under the impression that Totem and a few others did not favor our bottom job solution, we opted to not post further as it would be futile to press the issue if they couldn't grasp the "common sense" environmental and longevity benefits of what we used.
Months later on our Facebook news feed, we had another shared post about Sailing Totem appear and we checked their FB page again.
Déjà vu! They had completed a bottom job on their boat in November 2018 and used essentially the same materials and process as we did - West System 105 Epoxy Resin, Interlux InterProtect barrier coat, and CopperCoat. With the numerous brands (and cheaper costs) of epoxy resins and barrier coats available, what would be the odds of them selecting the exact same brands as we did, pretty astronomical one would think. Their choice of CopperCoat easily could have been influenced by others as the posts we reviewed on their FB page had numerous recommendations for it from other boaters. It was weird to read their enthusiasm and environmental spiritual awakening as they are now staunch advocates of CopperCoat. I guess we must have really "nailed it" in our early post - Note: our original comments seem to have been deleted? But this still felt so vaguely familiar, so much the same.... Regardless of the similarity, their choice appears to be a wise one!
Déjà vu! Is this a just a coincident or what? Naaa.......it couldn't be.......
