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The Valkyrie is a well-recognized Sport yacht in Southern California. Captain Tom and Anita Petersen are well known around the marine world in yacht sales, training, charters and just having fun on the water. Tom has been the Commodore of 2 Yacht Clubs and has planned and initiated hundreds of outings for boaters.

About 5 years ago there was a very real push to rid the use of copper based bottom paint in Channel Islands Harbor (as well as California). While the issue was being discussed, the Valkyrie (a 60ft Sport yacht) was coming up for needing bottom paint. Tom decided to consider a non-copper based paint, but also knew that without much data, this was a gamble. The concern was:

  1. Would the paint do what it is supposed to do, and
  2. Would it last? Valkyrie regularly travels at 30kts which could peel off cheap ablative paint quickly, especially since Valkyrie is run several times a week.

Doing some research, we found that EPaint had a non-copper paint that was used by coast guard fast boats. Ventura Harbor Boatyard arranged for Valkyrie to be painted with SN-1 HP. That process was late Summer of 2012. Bottom cleaning has been performed every 2 months which is less than recommended (ideally monthly in the Summer). Late Fall of 2015, the bottom cleaning service (Green Clean Dive Service in Channel Islands Harbor) announced that on a scale of 1-10, the bottom paint was still effective at around 6 and that sometime soon we should start planning to repaint. March 2016, now 3.5 years after first applying the Epaint, we are finally planning to haul Valkyrie out for a repaint.

Copper Paint is still allowed, but continues to be discussed in regards to banning its use.

3.5 years for ANY paint to be effective is fantastic! This is a testament to great quality paint and regardless if copper paint is still available, a non-copper paint alternative for roughly the same price, is a no-brainer!

Captain Tom Petersen