Keel Hauling

[alanrothenbush]

Short Version:

Anyone "keel hauled" their boat to get the mussels off the bottom?


Longer Version:

For a variety of reasons (health, mostly), my boat didn't come out of the water this year, and I got to rely upon my bottom paint to keep her "slippery" (and used a diver to replace the zincs).

Unsurprisingly, I got a lot of growth, including an amazing colony of mussels attached to my rudder.

Using the back of a 24" brush with a long telescoping handle, and leaning over the stern in manner that ALMOST had me swimming more than once, I was able to clean the rudder.

I then went sailing, for the first time in almost a year, but found her SLOW, and slow to turn, and needing much more rudder correction than normal.

I'm going to believe there's a pretty big mussel growth hanging from the keel, especially as that's one spot that's always light on bottom paint anyway (where she rests on some wooden blocks).

But it occurs to me that SOME sort of .. thing .. dragged over the bottom of the keel, either fore and aft or side to side, just might be able to scrape away enough growth that sailing is fun again for another month or two this fall.

(Spring will see a regular haulout again.)

Is this nuts? Or is "keel hauling" a common enough practice? If so, what do people use for a "cleaner"?


Thanks for any thoughts.


Alan

[Jammer]

I don't think you're going to solve the problem without diving the boat (or having someone else do it).

[JPA Cate]

Jammer's on the right track with this. If you are fit enough, you can do it yourself, with a 4" putty knife, diving. Not likely to find an appropriate cable to saw it off from above decks, plus the risk of cutting into the gelcoat. Also, sitting the boat down on a rock will crush the crunchy growth, but is kind of hard to do well, and then you have to wait for the tide to come back, so free-diving is the easiest answer, if you're a swimmer.

Otherwise, hire a diver, again. With 6 months more growth you risk having the prop so foul that you will not be able to safely move the boat to her spring haulout location, and it will take a team of divers, or longer for one. If it is a trailerable boat, you might be able to have it hauled now, and then clean most of it off when you put her on the
trailer.

Ann

[alanrothenbush]

Sadly, I'm not fit enough to do this sort of dive, nor do I have the gear (the water's too cold to dive without a wetsuit).

Nor WOULD I dive in this; 360 days a year the water is FILTHY.

(As beautiful as Vancouver is, this particular inlet, in the middle of one of our most touristy areas, is a sewer, quite literally. Between the hundred or so boaters anchored there illegally dumping their raw sewage and the fact that the sanitary sewers overflow into the storm sewers when too many people on land all flush at once, the invoices from the divers are substantially higher than when I was moored just a wee distance out of town.)

Quite frankly, I was astonished that the water was perfectly clear on the day I chose to clean the rudder. I could see some of my tools on the bottom!

The thing is, the mussels and whatnot came off the sides and bottom of the rudder with little enough effort. Even though I had little purchase because of the awkward angle, I'm pretty sure I was able to scrape the bottom of the rudder clean.

This gives me hope that a mechanical scrape from the dock just might do the trick.


Alan

[hellosailor]

Keel Hauling is a specific term that refers to the old naval tradition of passing a line around the entire hull, then tying a crew member into that line, and literally dragging the crew member across the bottom of the ship, facing outward from it.

Since naval vessels in the 1700's were usually wood with heavy bottom encrustations, most of the skin was usually torn from the crew member's back and portions of their limbs, and if they survived the keel hauling they usually died a painful death from infections within the week.

So, the term "keel hauling" might be used with some discretion, considering what it long has meant. It was not merely the "punishment" that Hollywood has often shown, it was usually a long painful death sentence.

Haul the boat, careen the boat, dive on the boat, unless you sail in the Dead Sea, you're probably going to need to get physical about cleaning it, often monthly.

[Panope]

Originally Posted by alanrothenbush

Anyone "keel hauled" their boat to get the mussels off the bottom?

Yes.

[zeehag]

keelhauling is a punishment. scrubbing hull or scraping hullin water is called cleaning bottom.
do it. place a deadman line from bow to stern, affixed nicely and securely so you have a handhold and with a scraper, scrape off the crud. have fun.
i pay others to do this work. every month.
and yes a scraper will get that heavy growth right off. wear gloves and protective gear.

[fourlyons]

Tidal grids were common in that area when I lived in the PNW. I used to use them often to do a quick bottom cleaning. You could look for a local one.

[JPA Cate]

Hi, Alan,

You might want to follow this link: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=t...hrome&ie=UTF-8

Ann

[Jim Cate]

Alan, you have not mentioned what sort of boat is involved (it is really helpful to fill out your profile with this sort of info, for it helps with our attempts to help out).

It is possible to use a rope athwartships, dragged fore to aft and "sawed" back and forth... IF the hull shape has no big discontinuities for the rope to hang up in. This rules out many fin keel shapes.

But as I recall, your area has fairly big tidal ranges, and that means that drying out on a proper grid, or just against a dock is quite easily done, and would allow a good cleaning. Ask around for advice on good locations...

Jim

[belizesailor]

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...d.php?t=220020


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