Hull cleaning videos

[fstbttms]

Since we've been discussing hull cleaning and anti fouling paint quite a bit recently, I though you might be interested in these videos I made earlier this year:

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzawnxVPlL0

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgPmXg1-o5g

 

[LuzSD]

Thanks for those, very interesting and I love the music......

 

[kloudie1]

Good pix, Fast..

 

[PrincessoftheLake]

Not a big fan of slimy bottoms but love the music!

 

[gpd955]

Very cool. And the minute I said I was going to ask what kind of paint and how long it had been since the last cleaning, the answer popped up.

What's the water temp in late fall/early winter there? We rarely get above 70 in the summer and I'm wondering how slime accumulation there compares to our neck of the woods.

 

[fstbttms]

Very cool. And the minute I said I was going to ask what kind of paint and how long it had been since the last cleaning, the answer popped up.

What's the water temp in late fall/early winter there? We rarely get above 70 in the summer and I'm wondering how slime accumulation there compares to our neck of the woods.

Late fall/early winter water temp is probably in the mid-fifties. Our yearly variation is usually from about 48°-72°.

 

[caguy]

Love the music, but how do you get it to play underwater?

 

[gpd955]

Late fall/early winter water temp is probably in the mid-fifties. Our yearly variation is usually from about 48°-72°.

Ok. Then our temp conditions are very similar.

 

[Rick D]

Enjoyed those a lot. Looked like a pretty nasty bottom to start with but the paint must have been reasonably good. I hope you got a service contract out of it. That thing sure was zinced up! Is it a custom there to use two shaft zincs, or was that just a really hot dock? (I guess three actually, counting the prop zinc.) My last marina required shaft zinc replacement every 8 weeks on average. The docks were 45 years old and some of the boats were poorly maintained. Where I am now, the dock is about six years old and the boats are well maintained. I go about nine months between shaft zincs. My strut zinc lasts years tho, even in the old marina.

 

[fstbttms]

Enjoyed those a lot. Looked like a pretty nasty bottom to start with but the paint must have been reasonably good.

I don't know what you consider "nasty" but I wish all the bottoms I cleaned were as easy as that one was. That was the first cleaning on a 3-month-old Trinidad bottom. That's about as easy as it gets.

I hope you got a service contract out of it.

I don't require a contract. That particular customer is on a 3-month schedule, but it is strictly a verbal agreement. I think most hull cleaners work that way here.

That thing sure was zinced up! Is it a custom there to use two shaft zincs, or was that just a really hot dock?

Two shaft zincs is not an unusual arrangement here (or anywhere, to my knowledge.) Not a hot dock by any means. Just cheap insurance.

My last marina required shaft zinc replacement every 8 weeks on average.

Sounds like you could've used a second shaft zinc.

Where I am now, the dock is about six years old and the boats are well maintained. I go about nine months between shaft zincs. My strut zinc lasts years tho, even in the old marina.

That is as it should be for both shaft and strut zincs.

 

[DannyS]

It's interesting to see how the other half lives... up here in on Lake Superior, the water is so cold that my boat comes out of the water looking as good as it did when it went in 6 months prior. Would I trade paying fstbttms a couple of times a year to scrub my bottom for a longer sailing season...well, you got me there, I'd love a 12 or even 9 month sailing season.
Nice work fstbttms!

 

[gpd955]

Originally Posted by Rick D
My last marina required shaft zinc replacement every 8 weeks on average.

For my last boat, which i painted with a hard paint (I believe it was a Petit product...I forget which one though) and had one shaft zinc (didn't know any better) I had a diver go down every year for the five years I had it. On the fifth year, he said that the zinc was over 90% intact and there wasn't any growth, other than some slime. Most of the boats here stay relatively clean and it appears there's not a lot of stray current. The boat is still where I left it when i sold it in 2009 so who knows what condition it is in now.

On this boat i played it safe and put 2 zincs on, so we shall see! I plan on pulling this one every other year, regardless of need, just to keep it maintained. On the off year, I will just have it checked out by a pro.

 

[fstbttms]

On the fifth year, he said that the zinc was over 90% intact and there wasn't any growth, other than some slime.

The fact that your zinc did not deplete (and that it had become foul) means that it was not working, possibly because it was not making good electrical contact with the shaft.

 

[gpd955]

So if it is not depleting, that's not a good thing? I just assumed the opposite. I will definitely keep a closer eye on it on this boat then.

The diver did not seem to be concerned about it so I just took his word for it.

 

[fstbttms]

So if it is not depleting, that's not a good thing?

It is supposed to deplete. If it does not, it is not protecting whatever it is there to protect.

The diver did not seem to be concerned about it so I just took his word for it.

He was not concerned because he didn't know what he was doing. I know that sounds arrogant, but the fact is that just because somebody can get into the water and clean your hull, doesn't mean they're qualified to do it.

 

[gpd955]

Not arrogant at all. It's info I need to know. Almost everyone down here uses the guy so it's something to keep in mind. I have 2 on the current boat and I made sure that they were secured properly and I will definitely keep a close eye on them. I've learned a lot about boat ownership and maintenance over the past decade but I still have a lot more to learn, especially with this boat since my work is more geared toward maintaining as opposed to the '79 which needed constant repairing!

 

[LuzSD]

He was not concerned because he didn't know what he was doing. I know that sounds arrogant, but the fact is that just because somebody can get into the water and clean your hull, doesn't mean they're qualified to do it


For what its worth, in the 5 years we have owned our boat we have changed divers 4 times and each time I thought, NOW we have someone who knows what he's doing, and cares about our boat......only to be amazed at how terribly they did the job and how blatantly they lied. The last guy was a friend of a dockmate and he either would say he cleaned the bottom or had one excuse after another as to why he could not.... it ultimately did not matter because apparently he only rarely cleaned it at all and generally it was when I called him about having no knotmeter. I watched his friends boat grown a beard at the waterline and realized this guy did not just lie to us, he lied to everyone. Finally now we have a great guy and we always can see a blue rudder (not brown) always have a knotmeter, and he changes zincs about as often as it seems he should. A good diver is worth so much more than we can pay them.

 

[Rick486]

I've been reading this thread with interest but been reluctant to become a skunk at a lawn party, but here it goes. With all this fretting about copper based paint and other "discharges", how long will it take the regulation bureaucrats to figure out that there is probably copper or other biocides discharged into the water from rubbing our boat bottoms to clean off the slime. Up this way marinas do not permit bottom cleaning at the slip since it is regarded as polluting, similar to power washing, which is also now regulated.

 

[Rick D]

So, what do racers and others do to get the slime off?

 

[fstbttms]

With all this fretting about copper based paint and other "discharges", how long will it take the regulation bureaucrats to figure out that there is probably copper or other biocides discharged into the water from rubbing our boat bottoms to clean off the slime.

This has been an issue for years in California and Washington. You are not telling us anything we don't already know and deal with. BTW- studies in San Diego (where they clean boat bottoms 15 times per year, minimum) show the vast majority of copper introduced to the water column from anti fouling paint (about 95%) comes from the passive leaching these paints do 24/7/365. Banning in-water hull cleaning is pretty ludicrous. Read this:

Washington Bans Copper Bottom Paint

May 11, 2011 – Olympia, WA
On May 4, Washington governor Chris Gregoire sounded the death knell for copper-based bottom paint in her state by signing into law a ban on the use of the product on recreational boats under 65 feet — the first state to do so. The law prohibits the sale of new boats with copper paint after January 1, 2018, and no paint with more than a half a percent of copper can be used starting in 2020.
California is close on our northern neighbor's heels with Senate Bill 623, which would put into place a similar ban. On May 2, the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality approved the ban and sent it to the Senate Appropriations Committee for further consideration. If made into law, the legislation would ban the sale of new boats with copper paint as of January 1, 2015, and ban the paint outright starting in 2019.

We've had three different Econea-based test paints on the bottom of our boat over the last few years, and all have performed as well as or better than the 67% copper control paint.
Photo Latitude / LaDonna
© 2011 Latitude 38 Publishing Co., Inc.​

For what it's worth, paint companies have made huge strides in developing alternatives to copper — we've been very satisfied with the Econea-based test paints that have been on our boat's bottom for the last few years — but Boat U.S. has expressed concern that, since the ban applies only to rec boats and not commercial or military vessels, it "may not provide a large enough market to stimulate research and development on alternative coatings."

- latitude ​

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2011-05-11&dayid=581#Story4​