My bottom needs to be done real bad. I don't want to spend the time or money washing, sanding and repainting and since I fresh water sail I thought I could just power wash the bottom every year and not paint. I pull the boat out once a year to change the outboard fluids I'd do it at that time. My boat spends the rest of the time at a slip.Is this feasable?
Power Washing bottom of H26
- Thread starter paulhousman
- Start date
- Status
One of the things that are different between sailboats and computers are that on sailboats there are no "shortcuts".
In 1982 to 1987 we kept our C22 on Clear Lake during the summer months, May to September, in the water, in a slip. The rest of the year we trailered it back home to San Francisco and kept it on the trailer and sailed weekends off the trailer from a launching ramp.
Clear Lake had an usual rig: an underwater rotating brush service that was like a car wash. You drove your boat over it and the brushes cleaned the bottom. I'd never seen anything like it before or since. We did it at the end of each season.
We never put antifouling paint on the bottom as long as we owned the boat.
It got scummy for the four or five months in the lake. The bottom was pure white, and over the years got greener and greener as the dirt got into the gelcoat, but it was still pretty smooth after the underwater brushes did their work. Even after that, though, we spent hours cleaning the scum off the waterline with plastic brillo pads. It was NOT fun in 100 degree heat or September early cold storms.
We also had a swing keel which let us be almost the only sailboat to use the brush service; they did it for powerboats mostly.
That said, having the boat in all year most likely would not work and you probably don't have this unique service, and you may even have a fin keel.
You could dive on it every few months and brush off what grows, but some of it may be more than an underwater hand scrub could handle.
If you don't wanna spend the time or $ to do it right, you're gonna have to spend the effort somewhere down the line or else the price you will pay is a filthy bottom. For what will undoubtedly grow even in freshwater, you're gonna have a buildup that a simple power wash may not get off.
You don't want to spend time painting? You're gonna spend more time cleaning the scum off. Pay now or pay later.
That said, anything's feasible.
Your boat, your choice.
HEINZIR
.
- Jan 22, 2008
- 198
That is what most of the power boats on our lake do. Power washing alone is not enough to get rid of the slime and scum buildup that discolors the hulls, though. The procedure used here is to wet down the bottom, spray on undiluted muriatic acid from a garden sprayer (be sure to use a proper mask and protective gear), and then wash it off with the power washer. The acid does not seem to harm the gel coat, and the hull comes out looking like new.
Don't use the acid on a hull that has bottom paint; the acid reacts with the copper in the paint and gives the bottom a streaked green patina. Ask me how I know.
For fresh water sailors only.
I've never painted the bottom of my 2003 H260 and it looks as fresh as the day it came from the factory. The secret is to run it up on the beach a couple of times during the season and spend 30 minutes dragging a brush along the bottom. I tie a fender to the head of the brush and push it under the boat to loosen the scum.
When I pull the boat in October, I give it one more quick scrub and then a quick powerwash. The final step (and the key) is to use a tank sprayer to apply some "Slimy Grimy" on the bottom as a final step and wash it off with fresh water. This stuff is not cheap but it won't harm plants and I also use it on my deck and anywhere else where alge lurks.
http://www.slimygrimy.com/
The result is amazing! No green tint - nothing but pure white fiberglass. If your boat is already painted, no problem, it just won't look factory fresh.
BTW: I got this tip from this forum back in 2003 and it's saved me many $$$ $ hours of scrubbing. Thanks Again Phil and all the gang that hang around the hunterowners.com water cooler.
More pics at http://h260.com
I've never painted the bottom of my 2003 H260 and it looks as fresh as the day it came from the factory. The secret is to run it up on the beach a couple of times during the season and spend 30 minutes dragging a brush along the bottom. I tie a fender to the head of the brush and push it under the boat to loosen the scum.
When I pull the boat in October, I give it one more quick scrub and then a quick powerwash. The final step (and the key) is to use a tank sprayer to apply some "Slimy Grimy" on the bottom as a final step and wash it off with fresh water. This stuff is not cheap but it won't harm plants and I also use it on my deck and anywhere else where alge lurks.
http://www.slimygrimy.com/
The result is amazing! No green tint - nothing but pure white fiberglass. If your boat is already painted, no problem, it just won't look factory fresh.
BTW: I got this tip from this forum back in 2003 and it's saved me many $$$ $ hours of scrubbing. Thanks Again Phil and all the gang that hang around the hunterowners.com water cooler.
More pics at http://h260.com
- Status