No doubt about it, 1 January 2018 is a significant date for marine paint producers. Why? Because new European legislation on antifouling will be coming into wider force on that day.

“This rule change is taking us in the right direction, ensuring better protection for users and the environment,” says Nautix joint director Matthieu Taburet. “From now onwards every manufacturer must submit to the EU a dossier to assess and authorize the sale of paints, especially antifouling coatings (similar to the regulation of pharmaceuticals).

Manufacturers who fail to submit a dossier until 31th of December 2017 will have to stop marketing it.”

What effect will these new rules have on Nautix products?

• For professionals, none. They can continue to use the Formula + range.
• For ship-chandlers who sell to private customers, the retail of Formula + will cease on 1 July 2018. Instead, Nautix has developed a new range called Yachting which will gradually replace the Formula + products on their shelves.
• The remainder of our catalogue is unaffected.

Nautix prepared for this regulatory transition a long time ago, by focusing research on the effectiveness of biocides and how resins release them. The resulting formulations are optimized for specific uses. “We test hundreds of formulations on tens of hulls in France and abroad,” says Matthieu Taburet. “We inspect and analyse them every two weeks. Instead of a cost burden, we consider these new rules to be an investment for the future.”

Nautix antifouling will be available in Europe from 2018 via the BoatMonkey webshop.