Cleaning Hulls

[Want to sail]

Our water is dark from all the tanic acid. It really is the color of tea. We grew up here so we are used to it but it will sure make your bottom a mess fast. The sugar scoops on our cat will have a green beard in one week. Between visibality and fast tides cleaning definately requires a safety line. The tide does help move the stuff away from you. You learn fast to position yourself upstream. Being new (about a year and a half) boat owners we still have a lot to learn. Definately noticed the ablative paint wear off more with each cleaning. We also use a variety of tools and brushes. One of my favorites is a kitchen frying pan flip. Longer handle than a paint scraper so it saves the nuckles. Brushes and scotch bright pads work on the slime but won't work on the barnicles. Planning to haul out and repaint the bottom in the fall. I had planned to do pictures also and agree that using the same diver definately has it's advantages. Each area has different challenges. Just down the intercoastal from us they don't seam to have as mush of a challenge with barnicles as we do even with the same bottom paint.
Deby

[Brent Swain]

Originally Posted by fstbttms

What works is cleaning your hull before it is covered in weed. In the water, by hand.

At sea? On a 57 day passage? Not an option. I have left for the Marquesas from BC with a clean hull, freshly antifouled , and by the time I got there she had a heavy layer of goosenecks . Friends took 100 days to get home from Tonga to BC non stop. By the time they got home, they had a three inch layer on the whole underwater of the hull. She was as clean as a whistle when they left Tonga. The ability to clean much of her enroute would have made a huge difference. People who have only cruising experience in tiny puddles like the Atlantic, have no idea of the realities of cruising the huge distances of the Pacific.

[Brent Swain]

The trick with a scraper is a six foot handle and a 9 inch wide scraper. You can reach most of the hull, without getting the top of your snorkel wet.
A large piece of foam floatation under the scraper blade makes a huge difference.

[fstbttms]

Granted, I have never crossed the Pacific on a sailboat, but I find it a little difficult to believe that a boat in constant motion with a brand new bottom would foul to the extent you claim in only two months. But if that actually was the case, then your choice of anti fouling paint was clearly unsuitable for the conditions you took the boat into. Might as well use a rope or metal scraper on it. It's shot anyway.

[David M]

A piece of rope cannot tell you the condition of your anodes or tell you of anything else that needs to be taken care of now that could save you a lot of money in the future.

[BillAU]

I think you are all missing Brent's point here...Brent is giving a tip on cleaning off "some" of the gunk that builds-up on the hull while cruising, he is "not" saying "a rope clean-up will replace a full hull clean-up, by diver or getting the vessel out of the water and doing a full hull job yourself"
Personally I think Brent is providing a good tip but...My tip for keeping the bottom clean is...Install a bleeding great 500HP super charged engine, preferable two of them, and drive your boat flat-out, 35kts plus, then at the end of each days cruising? Put the boat in a cradle and haul it out.
That "should" stop anything hitching a ride on the hull
Whatever works for you

[IceMan]

66 dollars for a 44 footer once a month in St. Petes, FL
WD

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by IceMan

66 dollars for a 44 footer once a month in St. Petes, FL
WD

Dirt cheap.

[osirissail]

Gee! and I was going to complain about the diver I hired in Trinidad to clean my boat's bottom . . . He charged US$100
- - And then he spent 5 hours in the water scraping and picking out all the little residue circles of barnacles and cleaning through-hulls and other areas even I ignore. Bottom looks like I just finished painting it.

[jean1146]

I pay $60 a month to have our 36' Cat cleaned up and that is with saildrives included.
JC.

[rwidman]

I employ a diving service to clean my hull for $2.00 per foot. I wouldn't do it for that rate.

[Healer52]

I had a service when the boat was in the water in Marina Del Rey...my problem with them is that they'd leave a tag telling me they had been there (thanks!), and then giving me their evaluation of the through-hulls, zincs, prop, rudder, etc. One month they'd be in just fair condition, the next they'd be in excellent condition, etc.....

Once the tag had a hand-written warning about the prop zinc being missing. Well, MDR is a very hot marina. So, instead of going sailing I got the wetsuit, zinc and tools out and went diving.

The zinc was there, and looked like it was 85-90% intact.

As far as goosenecks go, they will attach to a moving boat. But, they require flowing water and will die and drop off after you're in a harbor for a few days.