| I raced my Ranger 23 Tall Rig, on the St. Croix | | | | keel. Bottom silt and sand had scrubbed the keel |
| only to find that I could not seem to break 4 | | | | the few time during the season that I ran |
| knots. I posted a complaint on the MSN Ranger | | | | aground. |
| web site asking why I was loosing races and | | | | The Port side (VC 17) had a lot of blue (my |
| could not achieve any significant speed. | | | | original bottom paint) showing through, and |
| I had lots of tips about sails etc. but a few | | | | virtually gone on the rudder. The starboard side |
| Ranger 23 members asked if my hull was clean. | | | | of the boat with the Smooth Sailing Antifouling, |
| Even though I had scrubbed the boat hull with a | | | | non-stick was still copper colored over about 90 |
| long handled brush during the season. When I took | | | | % of the surfaces. |
| the boat out at the end of the season I found it | | | | Both sides had some areas that had never been |
| hard remove fibbers growths on the shady | | | | coated where the trailer cradle wheels were and |
| bottom of the boat creating a thin mat over | | | | also a few long lines along the bottom that had |
| much of the vary bottom of the hull. | | | | ropes holding the boat to the trailer that I was |
| In the spring of 2008 I sanded my boat bottom, | | | | afraid to remove so coated around. Those areas |
| keel and rudder and applied VC 17 to the port | | | | remained fiber free. |
| side and Smooth Sailing Antifouling non-stick to | | | | I had left a two foot long bare area on the |
| the Starboard side of the boat bottom, keel, and | | | | bottom of the port side where I had a strip of |
| rudder. | | | | Smooth Sailing, a gap with the old blue bottom |
| This year I raced with speeds up to 7.1 knots, | | | | paint never coated and a small area of a |
| and took a second in the Hudson to Prescot to | | | | Urethane Teflon coating in white. In this area the |
| Hudson race, even beating several J 80’s. | | | | Smooth Sailing Antifouling was still strong and |
| I intentionally did not wash my boat bottom all | | | | untouched. There were fibers growing on the old |
| season (7 months). | | | | blue bottom paint, and the Urethane Teflon |
| When I took the boat out at the end of the | | | | coating had no fibers but did not rinse off fast like |
| season this is what I found. | | | | the copper bottom VC 17 or the Smooth Sailing |
| Both sides of the boat bottom, keel and rudder | | | | Antifouling. With the slime covering the Urethane |
| had a thin layer of dead slime to about a 1/32 of | | | | Teflon did come off when I wiped it with my |
| an inch. Except along the bottom 6 inches of the | | | | finger. |