How often do you give your boat bottom a bath?

[Broke sailor SV Marcell]

A question for you Cheseapeake Bay Sailors. How often do you have your boat bottom cleaned? Do you ever consider doing it yourself while in the water? I took a look under my boat and it was zero visibility in the Potomac. Could not see my hand in front of my face.

 

[Alan]

From this point on...

...till haulout I will dive the bottom of my boat every week. By doing this it takes me about a 1/2 hour to complete with a sponge. The longer it is left, the thicker the algae grows and the harder it is to remove. Not to mention how much better the boat performs with a clean bottom.PS, using white bottom paint makes cleaning much easier. The growth is much more visible

 

[s sauer]

Bottom Scrubbing

Use your rudder as a guide. If you can see or feel slime or algae growth, it's time to scrub. I use a hard finish Baltoplate racing vinyl paint, and in the heat of the summer, the slime is noticeable after two to three weeks, and I scrub after about four.

 

[Darren9582]

Not on Cheseapeake...

...but I adhere to a strict schedule:Everytime I am soft-grounded at anchor on the intercoastal waterway

 

[Don s/v Tellico]

But not for ablative paint, right?

Can't see that cleaning ablative paint is good? Am I missing something?

 

[Jack W]

Bad idea

I was told by my marina that getting down in the water and scrubbing the bottom paint was not a good idea. The ablative paint sheds as you scrub and you will soon find yourself surrounded by a lot of colored water. The paint contains a biocide which can be absorbed by the skin!This sure stopped me from doing it!

 

[Bill O'Donovan]

Nahhhh

I use ablative, and my diver goes down every 30 days without consequence. By season's end, I still have plenty of paint left, and there's no color mixed in the water. Sure he takes some off by virtue of the brushing, but this combo of ablative and scrub has worked for years. I'm on the York River.

 

[Baysailor2]

Scrubby thing

A number of boats that race at my club use a tool with a curved pad on the end to gently scrub the bottom before each race. My experience in doing the same from in the water is that the first foot or two below the waterline is most in need. If you anchor out or tie to a mooring in a tidal or river flow and start from the stern and work toward the bow, the water flow will carry away the "scrapings" and you won't be at risk.

 

[texastom]

I'm with Bill

I'm with Bill, I signed up for a quarterly cleaning by a diver. That should extend the life of the bottom and keep it relatively clean. There's no way I'm getting down in that water in our marina! I have no idea what's in there and you can't see anything. I don't know how the diver does it but that's his problem.