Another experiment, and a report

Experiment #1:  Six months on

You may recall that I bought a package of NeverWet nano-tech hydrophobic coating for experimentation.  And that I tried an experiment where I coated our canvas "seahood" with it to see how it would fare in this difficult environment.

A review:  the canvas covers our sliding hatch when it is open; when it is closed, the canvas collapses into a perfect water reservoir about an inch deep.  And since it is winter, the hatch is closed most of the time, which means that the canvas spent most of the winter under an inch of water.  So what happened?

The water repellency remained unbelievably powerful all winter.  Whenever there was water present on the canvas, there was always a layer of air visible underneath it.  Even bird crap didn't affect it for long - just until the next rain washed it off.  Amazing, right?

Well almost.  NeverWet met its match with a natural nano-tech material:  pine pollen.  When the pine pollen arrived, the NeverWet became, well, wet.   But in its defense, the wetness pattern at least partly follows the spray pattern that was evident in my application of the material last fall, so perhaps it was not that the pollen caused the failure, but instead it revealed it.

Experiment #2

I mentioned in the original post that I was going to try the NeverWet on my dinghy prop - trust me, it's on there in the picture.

What will happen?  Will the prop just cavitate?  Will the thin layer of air trapped by the nano-tech layer just be ejected by the violent motion of the prop?   Will the nano-tech layer itself just erode away?  I can't wait to see.

Another experiment, and a report