Prop Guard by FSI for Props

Prop speed has worked for us. We will not try prop guard or prop gold.

If Prop Speed is your coating of choice for your running gear than fair enough, You'll find many new entries into the silica/ ceramic hybrid coating market that will force Oceanmax LTD to re evaluate their price point from now on as up until a couple of years ago there weren't many other players in this arena. This however has changed as far superior products are available in the market place to supplant Prop Speed. You'll soon see ceramic coatings in "Clear coat" form for waterline & exhaust / scum line applications from Alexseal and Jotun.

I don't doubt other superior products will come, but I will wait until they prove themselves, are readily available, and the yard I use is comfortable with their application. There have been other products for a long time. But they haven't been superior. I'm sure we'll see superior products though and I'm sure Oceanmax will have to make changes.

Do you have experience with the product he asked about?

Its a sad fact that the U.S. isn't as proactive in research and development in ceramic marine coatings as Europe has been.. They certainly have had the edge in advanced high performance coatings for quite awhile now. Yes, we've tried Prop Guard and found it to be an excellent alternative to Prop speed. We didn't have to have to apply Prop Guard in any special environment and found it much easier to apply without the hurried rush of the two part prop speed. You'll find that Lauderdale Propeller , Stuart Propeller and others have had samples given to them a year or so ago and have all had emersion tests in their shops with positive results so positive that they now recommend Prop Guard over the before mentioned product. ( might be commission driven a bit) but still a superior product to the unchanged chemistry for 25 years of Prop Speed. ICOMIA 's site has a mega yacht builders & coatings sub site that has reams of valuable information of the evolving new high performance ceramic coatings on the market today being used in real time with excellent results. There are so many companies out there in Europe selling and applying various ceramic coatings for topsides and running gear use that its hard to keep track . Rokoat seems to have the market between the Balearics and the south of France and Jotun owns the Netherlands in this arena. Many players slapping their own labels on proprietary technology to differentiate themselves.

Very good information.

Typically I am not one to be on the front wave of the introduction or change of any product. I take a very conservative approach when what I have is working. That means in cases like this I continue to use the product I've been using satisfactorily perhaps even beyond the time that might make sense to others. The immersion tests sound positive, but I'll wait until some local boats have run with it on all their underwater metal for a year or two. Certainly easier application is beneficial if performance is the same.

What does make things complicated often, and does in this case, is the financial incentive to yards and others to get them to attempt to sway customers. Now, your indications are that this technology and both products may soon be outdated and replaced by better options, so I might end up skipping a step along the way.

If you have cavitation issues and pitting of your propellors, it doesn't matter what you put on them (ceramic coating or prop speed or similar) it will all get burned off very quickly by the cavitation.

Maybe fix the cause of the cavitation burns? One boat I ran had a real problem because the gear was extended and the new struts were square on the trailing edge, 1" wide. The bubbles hit the props and pitted them badly. On the advice of a prop guy in San Francisco, I faired the trailing edge and the problem was solved.
Another coating consideration here in San Diego is the type of growth we have. The tube worm coral sticks to almost everything and a monthly diver is unavoidable. Although PropSpeed shows good results, you won't get a discount from the diver and he'll be under there anyway. The ceramic may work well on the props, but what about the other metals?

We get pricing based on the effort and time required and definitely do get a discount based on the frequency of cleaning and the bottom condition and based on prop speed having been used on all metals. I'm not by any means claiming we save enough to pay for the Prop Speed. However, we maintain performance and that carries value too.

As far as I know, it's a flat rate by the foot and type of boat, here. Maybe that can be negotiated; after all, there's a lot of competition in San Diego. You're right that there's a performance bonus with PropSpeed to consider, as well.

For one time users, it's typically a flat rate here, but beyond that there are discounts based on frequency, condition, and number of boats. There are also substantial upcharges for boats not regularly cleaned and in very bad condition.

Why the props only?

There's a standard per foot rate here on a monthly contract that most everyone in the industry charges.

I guess he's going with the ceramic, which needs to be applied in the shop.

"Overall, it does not have widespread use. This may be due to the Fact that The application process can only be done in the shop, and requires a few days as opposed applying prop,speed in the yard.".

Please keep us up on your results.