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EP38 – DIY Silicone Antifouling: How to Apply Hempel Silic One Yourself

The Low Cost Sailor (English edition)

17,038 views

In this episode, we APPLY and TEST a SILICONE ANTIFOULING system for boats: Hempel Silic One.

We apply it ourselves to our 10-metre sailboat, while also carrying out an osmosis prevention treatment, and show you exactly how easy — or difficult — it really is to do the whole job yourself.

But we don’t stop there. We also put Silic One to the test to see whether its claimed advantages are real: Can it improve boat speed? How effective is its self-cleaning effect? Does marine growth really come off more easily?

And, of course, we talk about one of the most important things for any Low Cost Sailor: PRICE. How much does silicone antifouling cost? How does it compare with conventional antifouling? And how much money could you potentially save in the long run?

We also look at some of the myths and facts surrounding silicone antifouling. What is true and what isn’t?

And yes... CAN BOATS REALLY SLIP OFF THE LIFTING SLINGS BECAUSE THE HULL IS TOO SLIPPERY?

We’ll find out!

All of that, with the entertainment and good humour you expect from The Low Cost Sailor.

Don’t miss it!

👉 IMPORTANT LINKS: 👈

👨‍💻 Full article related to this video, including links to some of the tools and products shown:
http://www.thelowcostsailor.com/en/ho...

If you have any problems with the links below, you can also find them in the article on our website:

👨‍💻 http://www.thelowcostsailor.com/en/ 👨‍💻

Some useful links:

✅ The paint scraper I used — a magical little tool that seems to do everything:
https://amzn.to/4yrOUro

✅ The random orbital sander I bought:
https://amzn.to/4r12MX4

✅ Foam pad adapter for my sander:
https://amzn.to/3SSkX4l

✅ The professional sander I was lent to speed up the job:
https://amzn.to/3UUPFuk

✅ Hempel’s website about Silic One:
https://www.hempelyacht.com/en-us/pro...

✅ Hempel Paint Calculator:
https://calculator.hempelyacht.com/

✅ A big thank you to the team at Cleanautic:
http://cleanautic.com/

They helped us with advice, lent us equipment and gave us a hand with the project. They also have plenty of first-hand experience with boats coated with silicone antifouling.

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CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction
00:23 Opening
00:45 What is Silic One?
01:58 Why we chose silicone antifouling
05:23 Application options
07:11 Preparing the hull
13:25 Applying the Silic One antifouling
16:34 Boat stands, propeller and seacocks
18:01 The results and our tests
20:02 Myths vs Facts
21:45 Price, cost and potential savings
24:17 Conclusions
26:16 Final thoughts
26:50 Outro

19 Comments

@lovem2007 4 weeks ago

Hi from Scotland. Love your videos, I've used a few of your suggestions on how to save money. at the start of this season we decided to take our Bavaria 31 back to gel coat. After many many hours we decided our time was more valuable and decided to get the hull soda blasted. It was the best money we spent. He was done in half a day and the finish was great. Keep up the great work on your videos.

@DrVlok 4 weeks ago

I think that you're better to wire wheel off the black rust converter acid when it's black. Then repeat apply acid, it will turn black again, so remove with wire wheel again. The final time you apply the acid is the time it doesn't turn black, because it has eaten all the rust. THEN you can paint over the rust converter acid with a rust converter primer that inhibits rust from beginning. Just information. Great channel, I love the videos and the approach.

@DirkJacobsz 4 weeks ago

I learnt heaps thanks guys - I have never considered this before - might give it a go..

@yanndrx86 4 weeks ago

Bonjour, la traduction en français ne fonctionne plus !! Bizzar

@TheCornishSailors 4 weeks ago

Good effort cap. That was ballache. I copper coated both my hulls after sanding it all back myself. Hopefully never again

@ostryostry1763 4 weeks ago

I went through this horror last season. I had a good Festool ETS 150 sander and a vacuum cleaner, so the suit was not needed and the robot was clean. Repairing cavities, replacing bottom plugs and painting took a few months! Through an extremely cold and wet summer, the work stood still for a long time. Now I regret that I didn't paint with silicone. Regards s/y Sotis

@ericvr.8475 3 weeks ago (edited)

I am using Hempel Silic One since 5 years now. During summer i clean the bottom almost every 3 weeks. I do not sail very frequently. The paint is very fragile and barnacles do stick. Still i like it. After cleaning the hull is very smooth. As Copper coat is not allowed in the Netherlands; it still would be the preferred antifouling.

@chrisr819 3 weeks ago

Well if Silk one works, all good. The big issue starts when it doesn't as the silicone works now against you and makes every other antifouling hard to stick....

@FabioTanaka 3 weeks ago

Maybe you dont know but is forbidden to scrap poison painting with copper or/and other toxins in the water (at least at the countries that care about sea life)

I also painted my boat with the same paint and I'm super happy to be a boat that is not destroying sea life.

@Amerona 4 weeks ago

If you regret the choice of paint and want another (better) brand, what have you to do then? Scrape and sand down the whole bottom again? And as a comparison: in our yard in Sweden (not commercial, it’s a yacht club) the cost to houl out the boat for an hour or so, is about 40-50€. Then you can skip all that paint job and pressure wash the bottom 3-4 times a season. Or you can use a boat wash in the water found at some marinas for 60-150€ as often you like. That’s a lot effort to do that paint job and then be locked in to Hempels paint program. But it looks good 😊

@patrioticjaustralia4679 3 weeks ago

I wonder about recoating

@Cptnbond 4 weeks ago

Thanks for sharing. It was super interesting to learn from your experience with the process. My shipyard charges extra if the self-polishing anti-fouling paint colors the lifting straps, and they have to clean them. That is one reason I'm looking at silicone anti-fouling and comparing it with copper-oxide hard anti-fouling. Do crane lifting straps damage the silicone? I'm not sure whether my shipyard can apply anything special when lifting the boat out for winter storage, as we do here in Scandinavia. Cheers.

@MikeAndCarolineKolling 3 weeks ago

Nah - too complicated, not for me

@yanndrx86 3 weeks ago

Hi,

I noticed that the French automatic dubbing is available on EP32, but it is not available on your latest video, EP38 – “DIY Silicone Antifouling”.

I usually watch your videos with the French automatic dubbing, so I was wondering if the French audio track for EP38 could be enabled or regenerated.

Thank you, and keep up the great work!

Best regards,
Yann

@rickpyne 3 weeks ago

Thanks for your video, very informative. I have a few questions tho, How Long does this silicon last, is it good in Tropical waters with temps at 21-24C, can you paint over it with anything other than silicon once it is applied. Will you follow up after a year or two with your analysis of effectiveness?

@lyfandeth 2 weeks ago

Always a nice claim, and least the maker has a good rep. But "I'm from Missouri, show me." Sell me the paint with a five year and don't tell me I need a $15,000 professional install. And then tell me, if the coating fails, You'll strip in, prep the bottom and replace it.
Or start handing out ten gallon free samples and showing us how they hold up in five years.

@TheCornishSailors 4 weeks ago

I would say though if you copper coat yourself it’s not much more than the silicone and will last years.

@briansrensen8204 4 weeks ago

We tried this and it was a disaster. The boat does absolutely not go faster and it will be over grown in no time. Avoid!

@EpicScotsman 4 weeks ago

Shame they're banning the more effective solutions like tin - are there any parts of the world that still allow it? Surely one boat don't make a massive difference on the scale of oceans...?