For 1,5 years now, the vessel “Willem B Sr” of the towage company BMS, has been using Thorn-D ® antifouling.
Thorn-D® is a worldwide patented, 100% environmental friendly protection for the boat bottom. By using micro fibers, Thorn-D® creates a physical barrier against barnacles, mussels etc.
In the following interview Mr. Wout Bouwman, the owner, will provide more information about the product.
Why did you choose to start Thorn-D®?
Due to its nature of operations, support activities during dredging, the vessel sails at very low speed (2-3 knots) or will be idle for a while. Due to this, conventional antifouling does not work for us. Even though the vessel operates in cold waters like the Netherlands and Denmark, we face heavy fouling like mussels and barnacles, especially on the cooling tubes. When using conventional antifouling, the hull as well as the cooling tubes were overgrown by fouling after just 8-9 months.
After having used Thorn-D® for more than 18 months now, the hull is still very clean as well as the cooling tubes. On top of this, Thorn-D® is 100% environmental friendly which is appreciated by our customers as well.
Did you realize cost savings already?
Besides the fact that I believe the vessel uses less fuel, we have not seen any marine growth on the hull. On some minor parts, Thorn-D® has been mechanically damaged. On these areas we see barnacles.
As stated, we do believe the vessel runs faster at lower engine power. We have never thoroughly measured the speed before applying Thorn-D®, but as a captain myself, I certainly feel she runs better and faster. This means that we are saving fuel.
On top of that, we and Micanti, expect that Thorn-D® will last at least for the coming 3,5 years due to the physical nature of the barrier against marine growth. This means another saving by extending the antifouling lifetime.
[mappress]
Press Release, April 23, 2014