How best to remove slime when drying out?

Poey50

Poey50

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We're going to be drying out on posts for the first time this weekend. The boat has been in the water since 1st April and I want to give her a scrub off. I don't imagine there will be much more than slime (over Micron 2). What's the most efficient way to get it off? (By hand.)
 
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I always used to put on a shortie wet suit and hop off into the water as the tide dropped and then just go around the waterline with a sponge (and big scourer for the tougher bits).

By the time you are around the boat and back to the start, the tide has dropped another few inches and you go around again... and again... and again... Just remember to hang a ladder off the boat first or you'll not get back on again :)

Dried out once in the Hamble and did our boat, then a boat belonging to an elderly couple on the next piles out from ours.. Then back to ours with a sponge and repeated... By the time the tide was below both our keels we had two clean boats ready to be antifouled.
 
I find it pays to have a variety of tools to hand.
Sponge, big scouring pads, scrubbing brushes.....
One thing that often seems very effective is a flexible plastic scraper. A 12" shatterproof ruler is what I used, it just wipes the slime off leaving the paint behind. Sometimes. BTW it will wear and be NBG as a ruler!
 
The thing with a quick scrub down is to preserve the good a/f paint as far as possible. So start with a soft sponge then go to a scouring pad if necessary then a hard scraper if you must. Some floor mop sqeegie things have a head that will swivel and so will follow the boat contour. The soft sponge would be ideal but then you could attach plastic scouring pad if needed.
good luck olewill
 
There is an invasive species called 'carpet sea squirt'. I wintered the boat in Jersey and picked it up - especially around the prop. Not even driving forward and reverse would shake the blighters loose.

Scrapers
 
William_H said:
The thing with a quick scrub down is to preserve the good a/f paint as far as possible. So start with a soft sponge then go to a scouring pad if necessary then a hard scraper if you must. Some floor mop sqeegie things have a head that will swivel and so will follow the boat contour. The soft sponge would be ideal but then you could attach plastic scouring pad if needed.
good luck olewill
Click to expand...

I've only just read this - but it is exactly what I did. The mop squeegee worked on 90% and a nylon brush used by hand on some of the more stubborn stuff did the trick. I got in the water armed with this kit when it was about knee level (in a wetsuit), did the shore side of the boat first (it's a 32 footer), then the water side and finished it all just before the water ran out.

Thanks to all for advice.
 
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I found Micron Extra very soft so that even a sponge took clouds of paint of and I was surrounded in a sea of blue. Uno and seajet 33 seem just that much harder they can be lightly scrubbed, so if I was the OP then proceed with caution or risk taking far too much off.

Pete
 
In a recent discussion on here I suggested a long handle with a 't' on the end, pole sander on the other, middle or closer to the sander end suspended from a halyard, so you can stand back and bear down on the handle, the halyard (maybe with shock cord on the end) takes the strain. Yet to try it, I have one more scrub off before I sell the boat.
 
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