One of the more interesting things about this.
The study did find that removal of the existing bottom paint was a significant financial impact for boat owners. So they received a $600,000.00 grant to offset the cost for any boaters that move to a non biocide paint.
If you are in San Diego and are going to be there for three years, then they will pay 75% of the cost to strip the boat. They will also pay a significant amount toward the cost of the new bottom paint. All you have to do is apply non biocide paint to the boat.
Here where it gets interesting. The 75% of the cost of stripping is paid directly to the boat yard doing the stripping. The paint reimbursement is paid to the owner of the boat. So far only 30 boats have signed up for the deal. Only 30 of over 2000.
This tells them something, but not what they want to see or hear so they don't see or hear it. The boat yard has a big time vested interest in selling the plan. Few people ever get their boats stripped back to gel coat. So this is a big job, and they can make money on it, so why are they not selling it? The boat yards are not selling the idea because they have done the risk assessment and ROI on the job. Sure they can be paid to strip the boat largely by the grant, and the owner has to select a new non biocide paint that they make at least 100% markup on. However when the owner comes back in 4 to 6 months and demands that they make this mess right, everyone is going to loose money. The boat owner is going to have to pay back all of the money in the grant, and the yard is going to loose a customer or multiple customers when he tells everyone he knows how bad he got screwed.
This is also after they have had multiple free seminars and events surrounding the plan and the offset money. They have had at least two and I think three major events with a lot of publicity to help push this better paint, and no one is buying it, or promoting it as a solution to the boats in the areas concerned.
The problem is that there are more problems than solutions here. The problem is there are no effective non biocide paints made. The solution so that you can "sport fish" in Ventura harbor, and the problem of not having barnacles covering your entire boat are at the moment non convergent problems.
Guy
