Comments about VC Offshore Antifouling Bottom Paint:

This stuff is still effective if you leave your boat out of water for a while. After applying, you need to wet-sand it until it is as smooth as a baby's bottom. Be careful not to over-sand edges and outer corners of keel & rudder. When you wet-sand, the color will change from blue to copper, but don't worry, after it has been in the water for a week or so, the blue color will come back.

I have used this paint for about 15 years. This is supposed to be a hard racing paint, and it is, but in a sense, it acts a little bit like an ablative. Over time, the paint will wear off very slowly as you clean the bottom between races. If you apply several coats, you can go 2 years without repainting. (in southern Chesapeake Bay) After 2 years, the bare hull shows through in a few spots. The paint is so effective that even these small bare spots don't develop barnacles. This "slow wear-off" characteristic is nice because there is no long-term buildup of paint that needs to be sanded off before repainting. I just scuff it well to get a clean surface with a little texture before repainting.

I am a perfectionist, and I like this paint. I never ever have any barnacles, and only have a bit of slime to clean off every two weeks or so. If you never have your bottom cleaned, maybe this is not the paint for you. But if you are really serious about having a slick racing bottom, and if you are willing to dive on the boat yourself every 2 weeks during racing season or have someone do it for you, you might like it too.

I prefer the blue color because you can see slime and algae easier, and you can easily tell when you have removed it. For that reason, I don't like the brown/copper "Baltoplate" color, or black. If there is slime on the bottom, I want to see it.