Diver

Indeed...the difference in locations like Portsmouth being that they are out and about doing these jobs everyday so you can book a single slot and leave the economies of scale to them...oh and you don't require a police presence! ?
 
ryanroberts said:
I bought one of these, an electric floating compressor good for 45 minutes at 12m, but not entirely for hull scrubbing..

Dive without SCUBA tanks! Anytime, anywhere.

There's an el cheapo knock off on amazon for 400 quid or so, but it doesn't have the reserve tank.
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Looks interesting but you really need to follow their advice about proper training even at those depths. I'm qualified to 50 metres but due to space and weight considerations just keep a 3 litre pony on the boat for clearing the prop etc.
 
Ammonite said:
Looks interesting but you really need to follow their advice about proper training even at those depths. I'm qualified to 50 metres but due to space and weight considerations just keep a 3 litre pony on the boat for clearing the prop etc.
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I'm a little lapsed, but dived from a very young age as my father was a professional. Also made sure I dived with someone on a tank when testing it out the other week. It is more like amplified snorkelling than SCUBA.
 
If you know what you are doing I'm sure it's fine but it's not like snorkeling as you are breathing compressed air. When you snorkel you hold you breath when you dive and the air in your lungs compresses the deeper you go. With SCUBA if you run out of air at depth and make a bolt for the surface your lungs will explode unless you have been taught to exhale on the way up. Cheery stuff for a Tuesday :-)
 
Ammonite said:
If you know what you are doing I'm sure it's fine but it's not like snorkeling as you are breathing compressed air. When you snorkel you hold you breath when you dive and the air in your lungs compresses the deeper you go. With SCUBA if you run out of air at depth and make a bolt for the surface your lungs will explode unless you have been taught to exhale on the way up. Cheery stuff for a Tuesday :)
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Yes this was beaten into me.
 
Graham376 said:
Funny thing is, when you suck a tank dry, you only find out when trying to inhale and there's nothing there so, lungs are empty as I found out one time with a faulty contents gauge.
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If you exhaled as far as you can prior to the air running out you have circa 20% air remaining in your lungs which would double in volume as you rose from 10m. If you were breathing normally (500ml breaths) when it happened you'd have about 90% in your lungs which would rise to 180% at the surface. Please don't try it! :cool:

Edit: reflecting on this I think my 90% value is unrealistic as it assumes maximum inhalation but the point is that anything over 50% is not good if holding your breath from 10m using compressed air
 
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Anyone try a DIY Hookah? Seems to be lots of schemes for them floating around the internet. Lots of potential dangers no doubt, to be taken into account.

One option seems to be a mains electric compressor driving a normal second stage SCUBA diving regulator. A bit over-spec’d on the pressure though for hull cleaning? Would you need much more than 2 or 3 PSI at the mouthpiece (1 to 2 m head of water)? If not, what about a 12V SUP inflator at 15 PSI? Are there regulators about that would work at this low pressure (SCUBA 2nd stage being around 130 PSI)?

(Just some half-baked thoughts of a non-expert, cobbled together)
 
catlotion said:
has anyone used these? quite tempting
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I have one but I'm not really a fan although I haven't used it with the coarse scotchbrite type pad you can now buy. In my experience it's not buoyant enough to exert sufficient pressure on the hull although it you used it regularly that wouldn't be such an issue. You also have to devise a means of holding the boat off the pontoon in order to clean the middle of the boat unless being blown off

Oh, and it also has a sprung loaded steel tent pole type fitting that corrodes the aluminium pole
 
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What, you are still allowed to diy scrub? Here in good old NZ all grids have been removed and if caught putting anything back in the water you face a stiff fine! So no more cleaning on a grid.
 
vic008 said:
What, you are still allowed to diy scrub? Here in good old NZ all grids have been removed and if caught putting anything back in the water you face a stiff fine! So no more cleaning on a grid.
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It's one thing fining polluters but what a load of nanny state rubbish. What are kiwis supposed to do once biocide AF is inevitably outlawed and scrubbing is actually important again? What about those who already forego it with either sheathing or copper-loaded epoxy? Plus there are plenty of below-the-waterline maintenance tasks that don't involve scrubbing, anodes, props, seacocks etc. Has this been lobbied for by travel hoist owners?
 
I think £200 is reasonable if they're doing a decent job. I use a scrubbis that I found at the marina skip and despite being a PADI instructor just use a mask & snorkel to do the prop, rudder, anodes & depth sounder. Having a coppecoated hull makes this way easier than it would otherwise be. If you intend to keep the boat for some years I'd seriously consider coppercoating the hull...
 
penfold said:
It's one thing fining polluters but what a load of nanny state rubbish. What are kiwis supposed to do once biocide AF is inevitably outlawed and scrubbing is actually important again? What about those who already forego it with either sheathing or copper-loaded epoxy? Plus there are plenty of below-the-waterline maintenance tasks that don't involve scrubbing, anodes, props, seacocks etc. Has this been lobbied for by travel hoist owners?
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I think we all know what's coming .

Antifouling applied only by registered Boatyards.
Antifouling that only contains copper or perhaps silicone.
Hull scrubbing afloat banned . Hull scrubbing banned when dried out.
Scrubbing only by registered boatyards with appropriate drains etc.
Shrink wrapping of boat before driving home.;)

Amnesty centres for for handing in anything that might resemble a brush.
 
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