Four Blooming Short Months

[oldgit]

Boat is back on our drying blocks in the week for a desperately needed jetwash.
Several other boats on our moorings have already been out recently, convinced my magic A/F would surely not have let me down.
WRONG.
Lost about 4/5 knots on last trip out, a quick feel underneath reveals loads of slime and a really impressive crop of tiny baby barnycules.
All boats were A/F in either March or April.
On one the boats the crop of crustations on the prop blades was the best use of space had seen in ages.
Boats using both hard and soft have suffered the same fate.
Sigh....................

 

[oldgit]

Boat on the blocks yesterday.
Never seem such a prolific growth of medium size barnycules, smothering stern third of the boat, including all stern gear, other 2/3 of the hull towards the bow covered with thick layer of slime, boat waas jetwashed and new coat of A/F only in April.
Other boats on the blocks recently were the same ,some even worse.
Cannot recall fouling this severe previously ,even after 12 months.

 

[MoodySabre]

Perhaps all the rain created more run off from fields full of nutrients. Or sewage.

 

[Parabordi]

Boat on the blocks yesterday.
Never seem such a prolific growth of medium size barnycules, smothering stern third of the boat, including all stern gear, other 2/3 of the hull towards the bow covered with thick layer of slime, boat waas jetwashed and new coat of A/F only in April.
Other boats on the blocks recently were the same ,some even worse.
Cannot recall fouling this severe previously ,even after 12 months.

will find out how bad ours is this weekend, if its bad I think a trip to Gillingham for a lift and blast and back in again is needed before our holiday

 

[paris]

mines filthy and feels so sluggish, only went in the water end of April. Im going to try and give it a scrub.I reckon it’s got to be down to the sewage situation as there is huge clumps of green weed floating up and down the crouch.

 

[oldgit]

Assisted a friend to relocate a small Rodman "peche promneade" from Rochester Cruising Club to Gillingham Marina yesterday.
Last season helped to bring the boat back from Queenborough up to Rochester.

Queenborough to Rochester last year achieved 18 knots @ WOT.
Rochester to Gillingham yesterday ................. 7.5 Knots @ WOT.

 

[Greg2]

Interesting. I would say that we have notably less fouling this year than the last couple of seasons and had been wondering if lower temperatures were a contributory factor. Mind you, I am basing that on the kind of fouling I can see whilst the boat is in the water i.e. the ‘beard’ around the waterline and growth on bathing platform supports.

 

[Parabordi]

Boat on the blocks yesterday.
Never seem such a prolific growth of medium size barnycules, smothering stern third of the boat, including all stern gear, other 2/3 of the hull towards the bow covered with thick layer of slime, boat waas jetwashed and new coat of A/F only in April.
Other boats on the blocks recently were the same ,some even worse.
Cannot recall fouling this severe previously ,even after 12 months.

Yep, we need a scrub too, booked into gillingham next Friday.

 

[Parabordi]

Assisted a friend to relocate a small Rodman "peche promneade" from Rochester Cruising Club to Gillingham Marina yesterday.
Last season helped to bring the boat back from Queenborough up to Rochester.

Queenborough to Rochester last year achieved 18 knots @ WOT.
Rochester to Gillingham yesterday ................. 7.5 Knots @ WOT.

We managed 14k WOT instead of 19. Was 17k a month ago. Same thing slime and little barnacles

 

[oldgit]

We managed 14k WOT instead of 19. Was 17k a month ago. Same thing slime and little barnacles

Admirals Cruise , pre scrubbing blocks , struggled to get 18 knots , down from 24 and a bit !

 

[StUrrock]

Our Hurley 30/90 with its Volvo MD2020 only makes 4.5kts with a clean bottom, ie just launched.
In 5 years at Brightlingsea we never needed a mid season scrub, although we put her on the posts now and again late august to have a look and the growth was never that bad, indeed we perhaps lost just under 1knt in motoring speed all season.
We launched this year late April and have been on a mooring just down from the bridge on the beautiful river Orwell and have not been able to get down to the boat in the last 3 weeks.
Earlier in the season up to mid June all seemed fine. Yesterday we got a shock when just about reaching 2knts under engine was the max we could achieve!
Must be down to the growth!
Bit worried now as moving house and work commitments its going to be another means another 3 weeks away from the boat. At the current rate our motoring speed will be reaching negative territory on our mid august return. Thinking at this rate I may need a tow to Foxes for a professional scrub!
BTW we have always used Hempel Cruiser performance AF, this year just highly polished the folding prop before launch.

 

[johnalison]

Our Hurley 30/90 with its Volvo MD2020 only makes 4.5kts with a clean bottom, ie just launched.
In 5 years at Brightlingsea we never needed a mid season scrub, although we put her on the posts now and again late august to have a look and the growth was never that bad, indeed we perhaps lost just under 1knt in motoring speed all season.
We launched this year late April and have been on a mooring just down from the bridge on the beautiful river Orwell and have not been able to get down to the boat in the last 3 weeks.
Earlier in the season up to mid June all seemed fine. Yesterday we got a shock when just about reaching 2knts under engine was the max we could achieve!
Must be down to the growth!
Bit worried now as moving house and work commitments its going to be another means another 3 weeks away from the boat. At the current rate our motoring speed will be reaching negative territory on our mid august return. Thinking at this rate I may need a tow to Foxes for a professional scrub!
BTW we have always used Hempel Cruiser performance AF, this year just highly polished the folding prop before launch.

I’m surprised that you should be so slow. I used to cruise at 4 3/4 knots in my Mystere with a 12 hp petrol engine and about 5.5 in my Sadler 29 with an 18hp Volvo 2002, which is fairly comparable to your Hurley. I have certainly experienced the loss of around a knot with fouling but I wonder if your engine/prop combination is well matched.

 

[StUrrock]

I’m surprised that you should be so slow. I used to cruise at 4 3/4 knots in my Mystere with a 12 hp petrol engine and about 5.5 in my Sadler 29 with an 18hp Volvo 2002, which is fairly comparable to your Hurley. I have certainly experienced the loss of around a knot with fouling but I wonder if your engine/prop combination is well matched.

Thank you for replying we have a Volvo sail drive and Volvo folding prop.
Normally we cruise around 2200 to 2400 rpm, for short bursts up to 2800 will give us normally a bit more speed. Revving above this gives no more speed, the engine revs fine so no blocked exhaust elbow??

 

[Sailing steve]

Two scrubs already this year and going to need another one soonish.

In a forlorn hope of finding one that works even remotely as well as antifouls you could buy quarter of a century ago I've tried both eroding and hard formulas from different manufacturers in the last few years and concluded even the best reviewed or most expensive ones you can get your mitts on simply aren't fit for purpose anymore.

 

[PetiteFleur]

My engine inlet blocked a week ago, engine alarm went off and had to get to a nearby mooring quickly. After spending 4 hrs trying to find the problem - the inlet was blocked. Tried all the usual things, blowing down the pipe, poking a flexible curtain rod down etc but to no avail. Spent the night on board and took dinghy to our boatyard the next morning. Returned a couple of days later with a friend with more equipment and managed to unblock it with a combination of larger diameter rods and scraping around the inlet with a boat hook. Fitted temporary pipework as I'd also found the plastic water filter had a cracked 3/4" inlet pipe so was also leaking air into the system. Now running OK so motored to our mooring. Now fitted new inlet filter but will have to reposition it later as the outlet pipe to the pump potentially could foul the alternator drive belt. Tied it out of the way as a temporary solution. I think the prop & hull are badly fouled as the engine was workinghardbut not usual performance - River Deben. A real PITA...


.

 

[shanemax]

Nitrogen run off. The environment agency promised to do something. The farmers are using more and more nitrogen to get a few more 100s of kilos per acre. It then rains and all the nitrogen flows off the field and into the rivers. Its pure greed and this is why the estuaries are clogged with weed and when the tide goes out the mud in places looks like grass. Very bad on the Orwell.

 

[ex-Gladys]

I think the nitrate run off thing is historically correct, but these days farmers can't afford to scatter nitrate fertiliser like a man with no hands, hence all the stuff in the news now about GPS equipment being stolen from farms. They now meter the distribution of chemicals (fertiliser, weed killer etc) based on agronomist detailed analysis of the requirements of every square metre of soil...

 

[shanemax]

I think the nitrate run off thing is historically correct, but these days farmers can't afford to scatter nitrate fertiliser like a man with no hands, hence all the stuff in the news now about GPS equipment being stolen from farms. They now meter the distribution of chemicals (fertiliser, weed killer etc) based on agronomist detailed analysis of the requirements of every square metre of soil...

I am trying to imagine a man with no hands scattering anything.

 

[Leighb]

This yacht has only been in since the 1st week in May, just 3 months. On the Deben, definitely a job for the yard hoe before jet wash!

 

[Sailing steve]

I'm of the mind the blame for the astonishing loss of effectiveness of antifouling over the last few decades lies firmly with successive UK governments.

Ever since the ban on TBT in 1989 that all started after after French fishermen kicked off over the loss of productivity of oyster beds in the bay of Arcachon they've gone faster and further in banning a relentless parade of substitutes like Ingarol and Chromium Trioxide, alongside a list of others the industry has developed to stave off fouling in pleasure craft under 25 metres long.

Funnily enough exactly the same substitutes aren't any big deal on commercial vessels and if you're a commercial user with a livelihood (and taxable profit) at stake you can still buy and apply commercial grade antifoul that works effectively.

So it's an easy and fairly obvious conclusion the dramatically increased rate of fouling compared to that which was experienced decades ago that so many boats - mine included - on the east coast are now suffering from either lies with legislation resulting from pressure from the UK fishing industry or lobbying from environmental groups or the billions of litres of raw sewage privatised water companies are cheerfully dumping into our rivers and coastal waters, or most likely of all a cynical desire to screw a few more quid each year from the yachting community by making us all fork out for more regular lifts and scrubs and more regular purchases of a product that's become almost useless.

Wherever - the sailing community isn't getting a fair deal anymore.

As an aside I was in the bay of Arcachon last week. None of the hundreds of boats dried out on the sand at LW had anything more then a very light coat of slime on so whatever the French are using works a damn sight better than anything us leisure uses in the UK can get our mitts on.