Fresh water bottom question

[Cest La Vie]

Oat was pulled this past week for a bottom job. Bottom appeared to be in excellent condition after the pressure wash. After three years of drought and low lake levels that prevented our travel lift from being used to pull sailboats, we have been hit with weeks of rain resulting in a flooding situation. The yard had pressure washed and sanded the hull, but was forced to launch the boat today before the travel lift ran out track (water rose 2 1/2 feet yesterday alone, and we are on one of the largest inland lakes in the country). Question, any experience with prepped, but not painted, hull in the water for what will probably be at least a month, possibly two, depending on more rain predicted over the next two weeks?

 

[Brian S]

My guess is that you'll probably get some slime growth. At our lake, we have what are called bryozoans, which are like billiard ball sized jelly globs. We also get some brownish growth webbing across the hull, comes off easily enough with the pressure washer when pulled at the end of the season. I found last year that using Hydrocoat SR limited the amount of waterline slime growth, though we also had an unusually cool summer. My usual antifouling paint keeps the bryozoans off, but not so much the slime, requiring some swimming every few weeks to clean off the waterline. If you do get any growth and staining on bare gelcoat, I don't think it's anything a scrub brush can't remove as long as it's wet and fresh out of the water, and any staining can be taken care of with On and Off. Unless your freshwater lake is known to have lots of growth problems.

 

[Joe]

You could pay a diver to wipe the hull down every few weeks. Or get a mask, snorkel fins, some weights, and a suction cup gripper... and do it yourself.... perhaps one of your children might want to make some extra money. The going rate for dive service bottom cleaning in so. cal is $1.25/foot. If the slime is wet it will come off easily with an old piece of carpet.