Now, where was I...
Oh yeah... The thing about electronic anti-fouling is that it is not a Darth Vader ultrasonic death beam at all but a lot like that dude at work/school/down the street that really annoys you... Or, in a nautical setting, a lot like that guy on the BendyToy 38 that spends all his time on the Latts and Atts forum while scoping out the anchorage with his binoculars hoping to catch someone being "topless". Yeah, THAT annoying loser dude!
Is that the sort of guy you want to anchor next to or hang out with?
Electronic anti-fouling works along the same lines. It simply sets up a vibration in your hull that grates on the nerves of various slimes and critter life that makes them think your hull is simply not a hip place to be... Much like my reaction when I go into a cafe and the sound system is playing Barry Manilow's greatest hits. Which is to say I'm out of there before you can spell C-O-P-A-C...
With me so far?
Now that you know how it works, it really does start to make a certain amount of sense because being annoying is a much more accessible goal than actually destroying or going ballistic on the critters...
A company down in the Antipodes who has stores worldwide, Jaycar Electronics (sort of a cross between what Radio Shack used to be and Heathkit), has a kit for an electronic anti-fouling system that looks to be just like every commercially available system around...
The big difference is that the "kit" costs about 10% of what an off-the-shelf electronic anti-fouling unit will cost. In our case for "So It Goes", us being a dinky boat, we only require one unit which would run about $180. Kind of makes a couple of hours with a soldering iron look attractive.
You do know how to solder don't you?
Now, if or if not this unit will actually work, is still something of a conundrum... On the other hand, it costs less than a gallon of decent anti-fouling paint so I consider it an acceptable risk. Plus, I have the added advantage of knowing the concept actually works from our previous boat, Loose Moose 2...
That said, I'm still thinking that the proper approach is something of a hybrid affair of electronic and a film that is annoying as hell (sort of like the guy on the BendyToy 38 with added Barry Manilow soundtrack if you will) to the critters we'd rather not take up residence on the hull.
My buddy Mike over at Bianka Blog had an interesting post on an Alchemical solution (a lot to be said for Geeks with chemistry sets) for possible DIY anti-fouling paint which is certainly an interesting avenue. Another interesting tidbit that has come to my attention is Lanocote (yep, the sheep grease folks) is now marketing a Lanolin based anti-fouling and it's cheap... Yowza!
Not listening to Mandy
So it goes...
