Material Solutions sought a partner to fit the first Irish boat and yacht with our cutting-edge anti-fouling film, MacGlide. Cork Harbour sailor, Brian Jones, was very excited when hearing about the ecological aspects of MacGlide. Brian’s main priority was to look after the waters he had been sailing for all his life. Therefore, he did not hesitate in applying MacGlide to the Jelly Baby yacht, former greystone-based Kaya, and current Class Zero ICRA champion.
The challenge
Jelly Baby 2 sought to increase their running speed for race events while reducing the maintenance and upkeep time required throughout the season. Brian Jones was looking for a product that would rate high on the environmental scorecard improving energy efficiency and the big one reducing water pollution, hence protecting our marine environment. The outfitting had to be completed in a time frame of 1 week.
The solution
Each year in Europe, boat owners use nearly 150,000 tonnes of anti-fouling paint containing biocides. Every square metre of anti-fouling paint contains around 15 grams of biocide, capable of polluting 150,000 cubic metres of water. So it’s easy to appreciate the impact on marine life when considering that a 30ft yacht has something like 25 square metres of immersed hull.
Thanks to its non-stick properties, MacGlide antifouling protects the hull from the colonisation of marine micro-organisms without spreading toxic substances into the ocean. MacGlide consists of a protective adhesive film below the waterline, coated with silicone paint. In other words, it is an “adhesive underwater paint”, a technological leap with multiple benefits.
The Results
Our fitting team did a fantastic job; we completed the job within the time frame, the boat was brought back to the original hull position, all anti-fouling removed, and two coats of primer applied, each with a 24-hour outgassing period between each coat. MacGlide was used from bow to stern up to the water line; adhesion was perfect, and the resulting job looked extremely impressive.
At a glance
- Reduce water pollution
- Increased speed
- Improve energy efficiency
- Clean
Testimonial
“As we campaign our race boat at a reasonably high level, it was very important to partner with the right provider when it came to changing from our current anti-foul to an ecological performance-oriented solution and that is where MacGlide have fully met our requirements and expectations. We now have a much lower maintenance, extremely low surface tension creating a high slip motion through the water, environmentally considerate finish, that will last for years. In fact, we won our class at a national regatta two weeks after having the MacGlide applied to our J122. Material Solutions and Solar Guard (applicators) were a joy to deal with!” Brian Jones J122, JellyBaby