# How do you scrub your hull?



## mikehoyt

I am not speaking of the topsides above the water but the underwater portion. Is important to have smooth bottom for racing and we all know this should be done frequently but rarely do so.

Over the past few years I have tried all of the following at least once.

1. Mid season haulout. Scrub & relaunch. Effective but expensive

2. Stand on dock with long handled scrub brush. Move the boat out about 4 feet from finger to do this. Seems effective when you do it but you cannot see the results and two weeks after this scrub was the haulout - the hull was filthy with unmentionable growth

3. Motor to a sandy cove and beach the keel and then anchor. Can stand on the bottom and walk around the boat with a long handled or other scrub brush. Can visually inspect with mask & snorkel. This worked very well but it takes time to get to the sandy cove (about 5 miles from dock). Works well but time consuming.

4. Swim under boat with scrub brush wearing mask & snorkel. Very hard to hold breath effectively for keel and under the boat.


I have thought about these techniques.

1. Get certified as a diver or hire a diver. Great for inspecting the hul as well.

2. A long strap can be seesawed back and forth behind and in front of keel. Good for fore & aft but misses allongside keel area.


Would love to hear how others do this. It makes a tremendous differnce in a race.

Any other ideas on how to frequently do a quick scrub to keep the boat clean all season?

Mike
Full Tilt 2​


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## TSOJOURNER

I'm a certified diver and wouln't do it any other way. 
I generally go under once a month with a flexible 6" wide joint knife to get those barnacles off, just be careful how you apply the knife so you dont scratch the bottom up and one of those green nylon pads to get the soft growth off the hull.

E.


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## infonote

Get a diver. In the Rolex Middle Sea Race, most yachts hire a diver to clean the bottom of the hull even daily to gain that competitive advantage


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## knothead

Go buy a hooka system. Probably cheaper than getting certified as a diver.


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## paulk

Another alternative might be to improve your antifouling paint. What do you use, and what do others in your area use? We've had good luck with Micron CSC with biocide. We hauled after using it one season and almost decided not to pay to powerwash the bottom at the yard- there didn't seem to be anything on it, after three months and NO scrubbings.


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## sailingdog

One word of caution. If you have an ablative anti-fouling paint, and you scrub your hull too often or too vigorously, you will prematurely wear through the ablative paint, and that will require you to haul the boat and re-paint. Ablative paints are best treated by sailng the boat—the movement of the boat will usually wear the ablative paint off and take the nasty slime/sludge/barnacles with it.


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## nolatom

With a small enough boat, a stationary dock or float, a place on land or dock to lead a halyard to, and a quiet wake-free area, try careening the boat over with the halyard. this'll get the waterline area much higher up, and raise the keel on an angle to where it's closer and easier to scrub with a long-handled scrub brush from a dinghy. Scrub the mossy stuff, then wet-sand what you can reach, for smoothness. Heeling the boat in this way will enable you to sand and scrub "downward", which is much easier and less tiring than "upward".

Then reverse the whole process and do the other side.

Be careful. there will be lots of strain on the halyard, be sure it doesn't jump the sheave, and watch your dock lines and passing traffic carefully.

This isn't easy, and may not be physically possible on the bigger boats, but if you can work it, it's effective, and it's definitely cheap, costs no more than the wet-dry sandpaper.


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## hellosailor

Unless you're someplace very convenient for careening, I think the practical solutions will be to hire a diver. Most YC's and anchorages are serviced by at least one bottom cleaner who comes around weekly or twice monthly for a fee. Getting a hookah rig would also be reasonable and while you don't have to be certified to use it, I think you'd appreciate the extra education about breathing compressed air and all. It is much easier to blow out a lung and get in trouble than you'd think, with any compressed air source. (And easily avoided, too.)
With fins and air, you can "swim against" the hull while scrubbing but you probably will find a large glazier's suction cup set useful, so you can "hold on to the boat" with one hand while scrubbing with the other. Same ones used to lift computer floors, maybe $10 on eBay for a plastic set.
Holding your breath...yeah, makes it a long job!<G> Weekly cleanings are just one of the hidden expenses to getting serious about racing, time or money, often both.


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## sailingdog

One caution I would also make is that swimming or diving in a marina can be a dangerous proposition. *There have been cases of people being electrocuted by a bad power installation leaking AC into the water.* Many marinas have a no-swimming policy for this reason.


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## TSOJOURNER

sailingdog said:


> One caution I would also make is that swimming or diving in a marina can be a dangerous proposition. *There have been cases of people being electrocuted by a bad power installation leaking AC into the water.* Many marinas have a no-swimming policy for this reason.


ROTFLMAO  
Thats gotta be the best spoof I've heard this year.

Huh? you were being serious Dog?

The only way that could happen is for someone to actually touch "SOMETHING THATS LIVE" to make a circuit while being "EARTHED" by the water.

Swimming a diving IS PERFECTLY SAFE, touching anything thats not insulated properly is the only danger and thats exactly the same on land.

The reason for a no swimming ban along those grounds is that a swimmer may attempt to board a dangerousley wired boat from the water, ie grab hold of a metal part thats holding a residual floating voltage but is otherwise insulated from earth (ie the water) by the fiberglass hull. Exactly the same thing would happen touching the same part from the dock unless you where wearing insulated footware etc.


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## hellosailor

No, no spoof, you can actually be electrocuted by stray current in the water. It doesn't take much to start heart defibrillation, and I know I've also read of at least death this way. Being in the water is not safe. That's why SCUBA divers are taught never to dive when lightning may strike (i.e. in storms) because the differential charge across your body is still enough to kill you--even if the strike is not right "on" you.


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## TSOJOURNER

hellosailor said:


> No, no spoof, you can actually be electrocuted by stray current in the water. It doesn't take much to start heart defibrillation, and I know I've also read of at least death this way. Being in the water is not safe. That's why SCUBA divers are taught never to dive when lightning may strike (i.e. in storms) because the differential charge across your body is still enough to kill you--even if the strike is not right "on" you.


 Sorry I forgot about the site being mostly US based,

You guys have a seriously dagerous mains system compaired to the UK

120v ac and no default earth. the potential for getting fried by the mains over there is legendary.

I must look into this further. If your power stations arnt earthed at source, floating voltages would be possable, (though such a third world concept being associated with the US wasnt something I'd ever cosidered before  )


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## sailingdog

Jorjo-

I was completely serious... if you're interested...read this.


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## hellosailor

Jorjo-
As Sailingdog's link points out, the fault was internal to a boat--and not caused by the US power system. Our grid is indeed "earthed" at each station. Most telling is "The bottom line was that if the boat had been properly wired or a GFCI placed ahead of the shore power cord, we would have our son today."
AFAIK, by now all US electrical codes require the installation of a GFI device anytime there's a shock hazard possible from water. It sounds like they were in the boonies (much of Oregon is) in an area with loose codes, at a marina that was just too damned cheap to install what is considered normal safety equipment these days. (I've seen marina and boatyard power outlets with GFIs intrinsic in them for years, they typically add $5-10 to the price per installation, at retail.)


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## Charlie R

*Oh great !!*

What's a hooka system?

Good topic. Isn't it good to have a little slim on your bottom? Doesn't it act like the slim on a fish ? Makes your boat slippery? Hummm,,, My oPYnion is the long hair stuff holds you back and for you salts the hard shell stuff is the serious drag.

Sorry, do we create work for ourselves when we should be sailing? ( honing our skills? ) I worry about the America's Cup.


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## sailingdog

A hooka system is basically an air compressor, a long hose and an air regulator, that you can use to breath while underwater for an extended period of time. Like a powered air snorkle.


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## Charlie R

sailingdog said:


> A hooka system is basically an air compressor, a long hose and an air regulator, that you can use to breath while underwater for an extended period of time. Like a powered air snorkle.


OK Got'cha. I remember seeing boats at Santa Barbara Calif. set up with those rigs not to long ago. Thanks... Not seen them on lake Erie ---Yet.


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## rolfedh

Bad wiring can cause Electric Shock Drowning (ESD) in fresh water. Google it if you care.


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## TQA

Zombie thread alert


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## FarCry

TQA said:


> Zombie thread alert


Nice one!

Back to the commentary, it seems that some wires hung from the inverter into the water could ward off zombies should they ever learn to swim.


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## oysterman23

well unless theyre wearing zincs.....

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk


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## goat

oysterman23 said:


> well unless theyre wearing zincs.....
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk


Was zinc even discovered in 2006?


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## DivingOtter

As an underwater welder and ships husbandry diver, I do lots on the side. Easiest war for soft marine growth is to get a a trowel handle a get some carpet scrap for the slime and soft stuff. For the big boys like commercial vessels and tankers I used a hydraulic scrubber. The fun stuff! Seriously though, anything soft enough to take minimal paint but enough to get the yuck off. I've done it that way and marinas always allow me to clean hulls in the slips and that includes pressure washing the running gear.


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## ad28

the zombi thread could use some regeneration:

Instead of a hooka, a simpler setup is a tank with a very long second stage hose. I find that a 50' hose is sufficient, I have a 40' boat. Tank lives onboard, you go in. It's a clean setup. I have a carabiner clip at my waist that keeps the hose tidy.

Instead of blowing the dosh on a fancy suction cup, an ordinary toilet plunger modified with a slightly bent bit of PVC works very well. Be sure to drill and install a lanyard on the outboard end of the handle, although I have still managed to lose the damn things lol

For scrubbing, the 3M Doodlebug, or WHITE scrub pad, is effective and gentle.

All this I learned from a very, um, controversial... forum patron, whose usual nick is something like FastBottoms, although the spelling varies fstbttms etc. Guy is a bottom cleaner in Calif and his advice has always been spot on if his patience with forumorons isn't. Fast Bottoms also has some video out, look on YouTube? Do a search on the sailing forums for the name, his posts should come up

and I have some "Bug Grabber" XS Scuba kevlar gloves, and those things are the absolute sh!t. The texture is such that you could actually just wear them and wipe light slime with your hand instead of using any sort of pad. And they don't block hand sensitivity too much so you can do fiddly things like change zincs.

and be damned sure to wear a hood and a suit of some sort. You really don't want that sh!t in your ears and on your body


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## zeehag

hire zombie to clean zombie boats. appropriate.
for my own boat i use a diver.
racing boats usually use hard paint, not ablative. they also haul out after each race. some haul n donot use bottom paint. 
but then they have a lot of disposable income.


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## rckfd

Years ago when I was young didn't know better I used vc offshore put on with the utmost care with a thin roller then burnish it with a gray pad until you could see yourself in it. Well, at least thats the way I remember it. But the stuff would foul quicker than the green flash at sunset. Found myself cleaning the bottom almost every weekend but it was extremely easy maybe 20 minutes on a j/30.

Once I smarted up (got older didn't care) I switched to an ablative normally the cheapest with the thinking all are as bad as the next used the foam rollers scrubbed the bottom with a scrub deck type brush found that the least abrasive. I really don't worry that much about taking paint off actually I kind of want to see some e2000 when the boat is pulled. But the subbing wasn't as easy as the vc.

I'd scrub with a brush mask fins and one of those suction cup for picking up glass I get them from harbor freight works great gives you leverage. With age I got tired of holding my breath and hyperventilating so I got certified to scuba. A little side note if you do learn to dive DON'T! tell the instructor you're learning so you can clean the bottom of your boat, As a general rule dive master instructors are narcissistic a holes (not you Otter) and will make it very hard on you. 

So thats how I've been doing it for I don't know how many years now my boat 32 foot 29 lwl and takes a little over an hour to do. That was until last year. Last year Jamestown had a deal you buy the paint and kicked in a suit and roller gloves the works. Being the New Englander that I am I used the free 3/8 nap roller leaving the bottom with a nice great fruit peel finish (orange peel would've been to nice). With the finish and an extremely high fouling season I was diving on the bottom like every two weeks using like a tank to clean the bottom close to a couple of hours each time. By the end of the season it was so bad when I was going to do my traditional last weekend sail out to Cuttyhunk Thanksgiving weekend the pickup was so fouled water couldn't get in. The unthinkable happened I didn't go and had her pulled.

All that got me thinking bottom paint is bottom paint there isn't a whole lotta difference they all foul in a week or two after launch some do better with barnacles but generally the same (that is if you don't know someone in the DOD that can get you some submarine pant). My approach this year is ease of scrubbing I figure the smoother the bottom the harder for the critters and grass to adhere. I took three days to flat boarding my bottom got all the peel off painted with a foam roller used a paint with the highest copper in it and burnished wet with a gray pad on a board. 

So we'll see I'll let you know if it makes it easier...


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