In the early sixties we moored our sailing cruiser at Brundall Gardens, owned then by Ralph Garrett. Ralph taught me many things, one of the more esoteric was how to make paint, varnish and wait for it…antifouling. How we ever survived the manufacturing cycle of antifouling I will never know. Every season Ralph gave me a shopping list and I would search the ironmongers of Norwich for a 56lb cake of white lead, ten gallon Stockholm tar, the same of pure turpentine, five gallon of foul smelling fat liquor from the goatskin tanner in Pitt Street a few blocks of pitch and a pot of arsenic from the chemist (had to sign a book for that) Try shopping for that lot at B&Q !

Back at base we would adjourn to the back of the boatshed and dig out an ancient boiler. Into its copper innards would go the liquids, the solids had to be ground up and mixed with the turps. Somewhere in the cycle some TVO went in and other nameless horrors. The concoction would be simmered gently then decanted into quart tins ready for the customer and without a health warning in sight. In those days, with wooden boats, we were more worried about gribble than barnacles but it seemed to work on both.

Glassfibre did away with the market for our witches brew but I wonder now if the pernicious polystyrene mite, in the guise of osmosis, is not more prevalent than gribble ever was?

With the jury still out on the subject of antifouling on the Broads we need more research on simple copper based coatings. I have seen brushed epoxy/copper coatings go for ten or twelve years without overcoating. A new system on the market looks interesting; copper flakes are deposited over wet epoxy using an electrostatic spray. It could last for years and done correctly help prevent Osmosis.

One thing is certain, Asiatic Clams are invading our rivers and dykes, a desperate problem in some locations. We need safer antifouling that works and respects the environment. Take a long hard look at modern copper products, it may well be the answer to your problem. However, it will not have the fabulous aroma of pure turpentine and Stockholm tar - if I only could capture and bottle that smell !