Diving

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deeb

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Its mid season, the boat has a smear of slime under it and I'm too tight fisted for a liftout and pressure wash. The boat is flat bottomed, beamy and cannot take its weight on its keel, and has a draft of 2.3m.

I'm not a great swimmer, but I donned a wetsuit and some cheap goggles and set about it. Round the waterline ok, hard work but doable. Under the hull I found almost impossible, I was far too bouyant and while I could hold my breath long enough to do some useful stuff after half a dozen goes I was pooped. Properly...

A surface dive left me in the wrong orientation to clean the underside of the hull, so how do you get down there?

How to tool up for this? Some flippers would obviously help. A weight belt? I'm a bit nervous about that as I'm not that great a swimmer. A few weeks ago I was robbed 95euros by a diver for 20 seconds work pulling some fishnet from around my prop, I know I could have got to it, but its along way under and at the limit of my ability.

Any advice gratefully rec'd.
 
Moor up in shallow water & use a long handled broom? Tie a rope under the hull & use it to hold station while your scrub? Tie a bundle of carpet to a rope & keel haul it from side to side, slowly working from bow to stern?

I simply sit on a sandbank - that's the beauty of twin keels.
 
All of Searush's
+ if you do decide to swim you'll need a weight belt to counteract the buoyancy of your wetsuit. Aim for neutral buoyancy, or slightly positive if you're nervous.

Mask, snorkel and fins will help (Flipper's a dolphin). If there's heavy fouling I swim the length of the hull using a paint scraper like a snowplough.

Alisdair
 
All of the above plus:

Run a line under your flat bottomed vessel. Attach some abrasive scrubbing material (the green stuff that is used in washing up the pots and pans?) and haul whatever it is that you have chosen backwards and forwards underneath. Be careful when you are in the vicinity of your transducers.

73s de

Johnth
 
lenseman said:
All of the above plus consider a Mini-Bee SCUBA kit (cheap from e-Bay).

Also, if you buy one of those red plastic back-door mats from your local store. they are made of 'Artificial Turf' type material. This works wonders on the hull without lifting the Anti-foul or Gel-coat. ;)
Click to expand...

Sounds like the Mini-Bee might do you and it will pay for itself before very long. You should still be asked (theoretically) for evidence of some training before a dive shop will fill the tank though and I wouldn't advise to use straight out of the box (of course I would say that as a dive instructor). I used the equivalent of about an 8 litre tank of air the other day but it needed more than just a quick rub with a scouring pad...
 
Searush said:
Moor up in shallow water & use a long handled broom? Tie a rope under the hull & use it to hold station while your scrub? Tie a bundle of carpet to a rope & keel haul it from side to side, slowly working from bow to stern?


Seconded. To improve it still further wrap the carpet/scrubby stuff around a large plastic drinks bottle and that will give it floatation which will press it against the underside of the hull causing more scrubbing power. :)
Click to expand...
 
thanks

Thanks for all of this

ropes etc pulled under the hull would get bits of it, and that would reduce the overall burden, but knowing the underwater shape I can only imagine getting to maybe half of it that way. Really, its a dive job or haul out, which costs about £150 per time. My local sailing club have a hoist that can be used for free but it needs three people, plus getting the boat there/back, driving round first with pressure washers etc, by the time I've done that its a day gone....

So as a starting point flippers and some weights, any idea how much weight, or is that not an easy question to answer? Yesterday I was wearing a 5/3 steamer, and had significant troube getting/staying down.

So try that first, then maybe some training and mini-b scuba gear. What sort of cost is involved? Go chat to a dive shop?

Thanks again
 
re : agurney

ok I get it now. I didn't know flipper was a dolphin, but I've been put right. Fins, ok yes, things yer stick on yer feet to make yer flap faster. Or summat.
 
re: pvb

I'm pretty happy with the antifoul, The boat's been in for four months, done 1500 or so miles in that time, and it is smooth as. It's a race boat.

I made the mistake of leaving it unattended in a french marina (locked in) for three weeks, and everything went brown and slimy. Not unusual, to need to have a little wipeover midseason, I wouldn't have thought. In the past I've used all manner of soft a'fouls, but this smooth hard stuff, I like.

Race boats, they want maintaining at a level, or there's no point. But I do beleive it doesn't have to cost both arms and both legs, hence the question.
 
deeb said:
any idea how much weight, or is that not an easy question to answer?
Click to expand...

Depends on you and on the suit. Perhaps start with a couple of kilos on the belt, then hold more in your hand till you find you're neutrally bouyant (neither float nor sink) at which point you put what's in your hand onto the belt.

Pete
 
Hookah diving gear is the best set up and what professional hull cleaners use. Either 12v or 240v. Plenty of units readily available [expensive] or you can build your own, you will need a proper hookah regulator though. Look through the various forums for Hookah. My total unit will have cost me $150.

Have a play with a lead belt to get the sort of buoyancy your comfortable with. The buckle will be a quick release set up so you can dump it if you have to.
 
Yes as said get yourself a diving weight belt. It should have a quick release bu8ckle that you feel confident you can discard if you get nervous. it should have weights about 1kg each which thread on the bellt. Stat with one but I think you will end up with 5. this should bring you to neutral buoyancy.
Don't expect to be able to clean the whole under hull at once. Just do it in stages. I imagine I would take about 3 days of short dives to do a 40ft boat. The more you do it the more fit you will become and just think of the money saved while getting exercise. You don't need an air supply. My boat is smaller and I have a scuba tank but would not dream of using the tank to clean the bottom. But then I find puting on the wet suit and getting it off the biggest effort of all but fortunately I can usually do it without wet suit. olewill
PS warm water means fast weed growth so I am cleaning almost every week. A/f doesn't last long at that rate. But at least I don't get a build up of a/f.
 
fisherman2 I would be interested in knowing how how you put together a hookah unit for $150. I've been contemplating the ones at the Sydney boat show but it's hard to justify their $1200 price.
 
deeb said:
So try that first, then maybe some training and mini-b scuba gear. What sort of cost is involved? Go chat to a dive shop?

Thanks again
Click to expand...
I wince everytime one of these post's appears....and the mini B's are mentioned!!
If you do consider a mini-b or other diving gear PLEASE PLEASE get some training.
Even though you are only 3/4ft under the surface you can do yourself some serious damage whilst breathing compressed air underwater due to lung over expansion injuries.

Good luck with your dirty bottom though......I clean mine once a month on scuba, and it save's loads on fuel and then maintainance when it comes to the annual lift out.
 
If your not a good swimmer don't even think about using weights. If i were you go to your local pool and do basic PADI course then hire kit when needed.As others say us divers are always up for diving for a few beers afterwards (cheaper than lift out)
 
Some great scrubbing suggestions in this!

Diving compliments sailing extremely well and is well worth getting trained and buying kit to keep on board.

Take a look at the BSAC website and find a branch near you. Better to be trained by BSAC, IMHO, rather than a commercial-only focused organisation.

If you tell the branch your short term objective, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't offer to help you out.

There has been made threads extolling the virtues of diminutive scuba gear; wouldn't touch it wth a barge pole, personally.

There are undoubted bargains to be had on auction sites. Common sense should prevail and don't be afraid to ask for advise from the branch.

Start a once/week basic training course over autumn and winter and you'll not have a mid-seaon scrub to worry about this time next year.
 
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