New Informational Website ShipHullPerformance.org Launched by Hydrex Group

Online, March 9, 2011 (Newswire.com) - A new website, www.shiphullperformance.org, has been launched by Hydrex Group with a view to informing shipowners, ship operators, navies, interested government officials, port authorities, maritime institutions and media, of the latest developments and state of the art in underwater ship hull protection, hull coatings, fouling, antifouling, underwater hull cleaning, hull maintenance, underwater ship repair and all matters related to maintaining the underwater ship hull at optimum performance while protecting the marine environment and reducing GHG emissions.

Hydrex recently launched a series of White Papers and a quarterly Journal of Ship Hull Performance as vehicles for information from Hydrex and from leaders in the sphere of underwater hull performance - academics, researchers and other experts - on related subjects: fouling, antifouling, hull coatings, hull monitoring and inspection, cleaning, repair; business issues such as how to keep a hull at optimum performance and garner huge savings in fuel; environmental issues such as the effects of biocides on the marine environment and the food chain, the control of non-indigenous species, and how to reduce GHG emissions from shipping through best practice fouling control methods.

The first three White Papers in the series have been published: Hydrex White Paper No. 1, Ship Hull Performance in the Post-TBT Era: How to save money while improving hull performance and dramatically reducing environmental impact; Hydrex White Paper No. 2, The Slime Factor: Shipowners/operators can gain enormous savings through advanced underwater hull maintenance technology; Hydrex White Paper No. 3, Clean Ship Hulls and Ports - Without Compromise: Best approach to safeguarding of the marine environment through correct hull protection and maintenance. These three White Papers and the January 2011 Journal of Ship Hull Performance, have already been circulated widely and received instant acclaim from maritime industry leaders and professionals. They are now available for download free of charge at www.shiphullperformance.org. Anyone in the industry or related companies or organizations may subscribe to the Journal and/or the White Papers by registering (free) at www.shiphullperformance.org.

The new website, www.shiphullperformance.org, has been launched for ease of access to the White Papers, Journal of Ship Hull Performance and related material. The website includes links to relevant references, a glossary of related terms and a news section.

Boud Van Rompay, founder of Hydrex, said: "Our aim is to bring hard to find scientific information and our own experience in the field to the attention of the decision makers, the shipowners and operators, those who are concerned with the cost of fuel, the protection of the marine environment and with reducing GHG emissions, so that they can make informed decisions, rather than simply following business as usual as dictated by vested interests."

Hydrex Group, with main offices in Belgium and the USA, has over 35 years of experience in all aspects of underwater hull fouling control, hull maintenance and underwater ship repair. Hydrex has developed and tested a system, Ecospeed, which combines a completely non-toxic hard hull coating which lasts the lifetime of the ship, with routine, advanced in-water hull cleaning. The coating is classified as a Surface Treated Composite (STC) which consists of relatively large glass flakes in a vinyl ester resin base. It is applied in two coats on a grit-blasted hull to a dry film thickness of 1000 microns. Once conditioned by an in-water brushing process, the coating provides a very smooth, extremely hard yet flexible protection lasting the life of the ship, requiring only minor touch-ups. The surface improves in hydrodynamic performance with each in-water cleaning.