How Often do you Clean the Bottom?

[Captain Jeffry]

Originally Posted by Astral Blue

business.

Whoever tells you scrubbing the bottom of your boat once a month is a good thing is either attempting to milk you or has rocks in his head. Just my two cents...

Sacramento sweet water is much different than salt. If you don't clean (light carpet rub) ur bottom once a month in MDR you got growth. Lots. Much harder on the paint when you have to actually apply pressure. Summer here, many do 2X monthly.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Astral Blue

Coming from someone who incurs financial gain from those who believe monthly bottom scrubbings are necessary, I find your accusation highly suspect.

Coming from someone who keeps his boat in a place where hull cleaning is virtually uneccessary, I find your accusation highly ridiculous.

[Astral Blue]

If I used much of the California Delta as a standard for determining whether bottom cleanings are necessary, most divers would be doing nothing but replacing anodes. There are many boat owners I know of in the delta whose boats don't even have bottom paint.

However, there is no contention a properly serviced boat bottom (hauling out and painting yearly or every other year, depending on conditions) will withstand growth. The proper paint and its application at proper intervals will prevent growth and reduce the frequency of needed cleanings.

The costs of proper maintenance need to be paid regardless -- whether to a diver or to a boat yard to do the paint. And if you do the work yourself, the cost is obviously your time invested.

I have boat owning friends in the Bay Area, Pacific Northwest, Texas, Soutwestern Florida, and Bermuda who contend with with growth issues on a regular basis but are far from needing monthly cleanings. Do they properly maintain their boat bottoms via regular haul outs and proper application of appropriate antifouling paint? Absolutely!

[ohdrinkboy]

I never clean my bottom...I keep my boat on a lift

The boat I race on we give the bottom a light wipe every other week in the summer. This is in fresh water.

[motion30]

Here in s florida Once a month

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Astral Blue

I have boat owning friends in the Bay Area, Pacific Northwest, Texas, Soutwestern Florida, and Bermuda who contend with with growth issues on a regular basis but are far from needing monthly cleanings. Do they properly maintain their boat bottoms via regular haul outs and proper application of appropriate antifouling paint? Absolutely!

All regions with widely varying fouling conditons. Add to that the fact that you own a powerboat that lives in a shed on a river 100 miles from the ocean, and I'd say that you are absolutely unqualified to comment on what is an appropriate hull cleaning frequency or not for anybody other than yourself.

For many boat owners in regions of moderate to high fouling, monthly cleanings are not only appropriate, but necessary. And properly done by hull cleaners using Best Management Practices, it is not detrimental to the anti fouling paint. Quite the opposite, in fact. Arguing otherwise only displays ignorance of proper boat maintenance.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Astral Blue

Once a month is excessive under any circumstances.

I don't agree. In brackish water on the Chesapeake every six weeks lets me stretch bottom paint to two years. In FL or the Bahamas I have to dive the boat every three or four weeks to keep up.

[Weyalan]

Originally Posted by Chef Mike

How often do you get your bottom scrubbed? Our diver's recommendation is once a month. With my limited spanish I have a hard time conversing with him. I trust him, he is well known around the marina as one of the best.

But is once a month overkill?

Some pics of the process may be seen in our latest post.

Given that your diver makes a living scrubbing boat bottoms, he can be forgiven for recommending monthly scrubbing. Rest assured, however, you do not need to scrub monthly.

There is nothing actually wrong with not scrubbing the bottom at all, as such. It will merely make your boat slower. If you aren't in a hurry, who cares if it is a mussel farm... within reason, at least.

We still race our boat and so we scrub it before any major race or regatta... but that would only be 3 or 4 times a year. So, for us, scrubbing every 3 or 4 months is fine. If we weren't racing, I'd guess we'd still anti-foul once per year, and then scrub once a year after 6 months.

[motion30]

Originally Posted by Weyalan

Given that your diver makes a living scrubbing boat bottoms, he can be forgiven for recommending monthly scrubbing. Rest assured, however, you do not need to scrub monthly.

There is nothing actually wrong with not scrubbing the bottom at all, as such. It will merely make your boat slower. If you aren't in a hurry, who cares if it is a mussel farm... within reason, at least.

We still race our boat and so we scrub it before any major race or regatta... but that would only be 3 or 4 times a year. So, for us, scrubbing every 3 or 4 months is fine. If we weren't racing, I'd guess we'd still anti-foul once per year, and then scrub of once a year after 6 months.

I disagree,If i dont clean my props I get vibration from out of balance. You do not live in south florida thats for sure. The same paint on the northern chesapeake very little growth for a season

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Weyalan

Rest assured, however, you do not need to scrub monthly.

Again, assuming that the hull cleaning frequency that works where you keep your boat is also appropriate for boaters anywhere else in the world is ludicrous. You cannot generalize about this. To do so only illustrates that you do not know what your are talking about.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Weyalan

Given that your diver makes a living scrubbing boat bottoms, he can be forgiven for recommending monthly scrubbing. Rest assured, however, you do not need to scrub monthly.

I have a diver in Annapolis who I think well of. He's called me to let me know the boat can wait a bit for a scrub. During warm weather I often take a look at the bottom myself to keep track of growth. In FL and the Bahamas I clean the bottom myself.

There are many places where three to six week intervals are appropriate.

I agree with fstbttms - you are extrapolating your experience inappropriately to areas of the world of which you have no knowledge.

[oldjags]

I had our bottom repainted with an ablative paint in Mobile, AL in May before we left for Panama. A month later, after only 2 weeks in Cartagena, the bottom and prop was already covered with barnacles and slime.

The water in Cartagena harbour is so nasty there was no way I was going to scrub the bottom myself, so we waited util we got to the San Blas Islands to do it. There I found the best thing for removing the barnacles was my long handled BBQ spatula. But every barnacle takes off a tiny circle of paint with it when it pops off, so I don't know if I'm just shortening the time before I need to repaint or not.

Seems like the new paint should have at least slowed the little buggers down a little??

Now that we are in clearer water, once a month seems about right.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Astral Blue

However, there is no contention a properly serviced boat bottom (hauling out and painting yearly or every other year, depending on conditions) will withstand growth. The proper paint and its application at proper intervals will prevent growth and reduce the frequency of needed cleanings.

You wouldn't know this of course, since you do not keep a boat in a marine environment in California, but a quality anti fouling paint, gently cleaned on relatively frequent basis will provide good performance for 3+ years and over the long run, save the boat owner thousands of dollars in haulout and bottom painting expenditures and far outweigh any increase in hull cleaning costs.

Here’s the math for 10 years of ownership of a 40' boat in the San Francisco Bay Area:

3-month cleaning frequency (painted every 2 years)
$2800 bottom job X 5 = $14,000
$90 hull cleaning (4 times/year X10) = $3600
Total expenditure (10 years) = $17,600

2-month cleaning frequency (painted every 3 years)
$2800 bottom job X 3 = $8400
$90 hull cleaning (6 times/year X10) = $5400
Total expenditure (10 years) = $13,800

Total savings- $3800

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by oldjags

I had our bottom repainted with an ablative paint in Mobile, AL in May before we left for Panama. A month later, after only 2 weeks in Cartagena, the bottom and prop was already covered with barnacles and slime.
Seems like the new paint should have at least slowed the little buggers down a little?

Why? You don't mention what paint you used, but a bottom paint that performs well in Alabama may, or may not, perform well elsewhere. There is no anti fouling "magic bullet" that does a good job everywhere.

[SaucySailoress]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

Sorry, but you clearly don't know what you're talking about.

Neither do you. Every situation is different, and your way is not the only way. Other people have opinions too!

Every situation is different.In Kuwait we have water temps ranging from 12C to 35C. In Spring and Autumn when the water passes through the twenties, we get growth spurts, and THEN we have to clean every month. At other times, as little as possible, perhaps once in 3 month. Generally when the fur starts growing at the waterline.

What does remain the same anywhere in the world is the simple fact that the more you scrub, the more anti-fouling you scrub away. We last antifouled about 6 years ago, and just now the red is starting to show through. So clearly you don't have to go at it that much!