Marine growth on hull

[Ado]

Hi
It is posible marine growth like Barnacles,Mussels and similar can damage hull if no clean for extended period time like 10 years o more? It is fiberglas hull.
Any opinion
Thanks

[Pete7]

No but getting the buggers off is quite likely to. They cement themselves on and the base is tricky to remove if you have a couple of thousand. We used a length of 4"x2" timber to get the worst off a club dive boat which sat for a couple of months in the water without antifoul paint. We then used fine wall paper scrapers to remove the bases and any we had missed on the chines. £80 of paint would have prevented a messy weekend for the club members.

More likely if the boat has been neglected, is the lack of anodes which may have caused damage to the prop and shaft plus rudder shaft.

Pete