Barnacles

[smallmark]

Hi Guys,

Just had three weeks in Yamba over Christmas and the poly was in the water the whole time. When we pulled it out to come home the bottom of the hull was covered in brown sh*t and there were about five billion (conservatively) black "barnacles" about 1 - 2 mm across. Took the young bloke and me about 2 hours to clean. I thought I read on the old poly site that crap wasn't supposed to stick to poly boats. Any good ideas on prevention or easier cleaning?

[Dave]

Mark,
By your own admission there were 5 billion barnies plus brown $hite on the boat and it only took 2 hours to clean it.

Imagine if it was a timber boat or a glass boat... how long would that have taken then.(agro)

I had the brown sludge on my boat when anchored in a river for a week. I just went over to a shallow sandbank and it came off with a soft cloth.

I have also used a water blaster (either at home or one of the car washes) and it also removes stuff.

You could always paint with antifoul, but very expensive and not worth it for the few times its going to be in the water. And as a inverse reaction to the marine growth, you will have trouble keeping the AF on there...laugh1

Sorry mate but unless you bought the boat with the AF added to the plastic prior to manufacture, you are stuck with a few friendly barnies.. at the end of the day its just cheaper to spend a little time cleaning the boat. 2thumbsup

[Keithy P]

I pulled my dinger out the other day after about a month in the water and I couldnt actually get all the barneys off. I used the gurney on them but they left there bums behind, where I was spraying the painted sections the paint came off but the barneybums remained. Thats one of the reasons that I want a poly, it may take two hours but at least they come off.

[BigFella]

I've got 3x 4.5's in our small hire fleet down here that had the miracle anti foul added in the cooking process!
And 1x Aluminium Pontoon boat that for reasons best left alone didn't get the anti-foul treatment prior to being commissioned and after just 6x short weeks of tidal flow is booked in next week to be scraped and sanded in preparation!

There will always be a small amount of slime, algae and sludge that sticks but most will come off with a soft haired broom!

I have worked in a slipway where we spent days scraping and sanding the little mongrels off so we could RE-APPLY the anti foul!

Crazy little buggers, they'll stick to just about anything!

Best of luck next time!

[Keithy P]

Hey Bigfella,
What sort of cost is it to add antifoul to the mix?

[smallmark]

cheers boys - I guess you are right, if I had a timber boat I would probably still be there!!!

[BigFella]

Hey Keithy P,

Additional charges below for Anti-Foul:
3.0 = $198.00
4.1 = $595.00
4.5 = $715.00
4.8 = $1,055.00
5.3 = $1,665.00
5.99 = $2,110.00

Compared to conventional anti foul methods the initial cost is quite economical!

[Keithy P]

Yes... very economical...interesting.
Thanks Bigfella.