Working with Boaters and Marine Trades for Cleaner Washington Water

Clean Boating Foundation Speaks at Port of Edmonds Tenant Workshop

Earlier this week, we participated in an evening workshop that the Port of Edmonds put together for their marina tenants to talk about boating issues near and dear to our hearts: non-copper bottom paint and aluminum anodes. It was also our pleasure to be able to call out the Port of Edmonds Boatyard for their efforts in becoming a Leadership Clean Boatyard – not an easy feat and a reason to be proud of taking your boatyard maintenance work there.

The core of the workshop was centered on what we’ve been seeing in Puget Sound as far as the performance of non-copper bottom paint and aluminum anodes goes. We were also treated by the presence of the sales reps from Pettit and SeaHawk paints, as well as from Martyr Anodes – they brought some much-appreciated expertise in the details of how their respective products work.

For non-copper bottom paint, the bottom line (no pun intended), in a general way, is that we’re seeing good performance in keeping hard growth (mussels and barnacles) at bay. If there’s any lack in performance, it’s keeping soft growth (green algae) from growing, especially near the water line. This soft growth, though, goes away easily with a pressure wash, a light scrub, or getting the boat up above five knots. For more details on individual paints, see our Clean Products page.

For aluminum anodes, the bottom line is, frankly, that they’re simply outperforming the traditional zinc anodes in just about every application. They’re lighter. They cost the same or are cheaper. They last as long or longer. They can be used on boats that go back and forth from fresh to salt water (meaning, they don’t irreversibly oxidize over while in freshwater). The only anode on your boat that you want to keep as zinc is your pencil anode in the cooling system of your engine – aluminum anodes wear away in slightly larger pieces and could cause clogging problems within the cooling waterways. Professional diver Shane McCall sees only performance benefits by switching over to aluminum anodes – see our interview with him here.

Thanks to the Port of Edmonds for getting so many people together – about fifty! – to spend an educational evening learning about clean boating products that  every boater can use to help clean up Puget Sound.

If you have feedback for us about other clean products and practices we should be talking about or if you would like to see a similar workshop in your area, send us an email at ben@nullcleanboatingfoundation.org