Hull cleaning tools for use afloat

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pcatterall

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We have quite severe fouling where we are in the Med and I am looking at ways to clean the hull.

Using snorkle and cleaning by hand seems to be called for especially now that the water is warmer!!
It would be nice, though, to be able to remove some of the fouling from the pontoon using a scrubber of some kind.

I have read about some quite expensive and large to store devices which seem to work quite well but am looking for something less costly and smaller to store.
The ‘Scrubbis hull cleaner’ (£80 at Force 4) looked like it may fit the bill and I wondered if any forumites had experience of this or similar devices.
I would plan to use the cleaner as best I could then examine and finish off by hand, does that sound like a plan!?
 
I have a Scrubbis that I bought recently - does exactly what it says on the tin and all for £79.99!

I found it very easy to use. They reckon once or twice a month but that would depend on your fouling area.
Only time will tell how long the scrubbing head lasts.
 
wizard said:
I have a Scrubbis that I bought recently - does exactly what it says on the tin and all for £79.99!

I found it very easy to use. They reckon once or twice a month but that would depend on your fouling area.
Only time will tell how long the scrubbing head lasts.
Click to expand...

Thanks! ..... which begs the question........can you get replacements?? I guess slime and weed no probs but them there mussels would do some damage!!
 
pcatterall said:
Thanks! ..... which begs the question........can you get replacements?? I guess slime and weed no probs but them there mussels would do some damage!!
Click to expand...

You would have to work out a regime for your area to regularly clean before anything gets settled!
 
I've recently bought a Scrubbis after having one demonstrated to me by neighbouring berth holder. Only used once so far but it shifted an amazing amount of stuff after being afloat untouched for 14 months. I finished off by drying out on legs on a local beach last week and scrubbing with a stiff brush. I reckon if I use Scrubbis every 3 to 4 weeks it should be pretty cost effective. I don't think replacement heads are available, but it should last a few years on soft fouling. Barnacles etc would cause wear I should think though it does come with stiffer plastic blade which you can use or not. So far so good then.
 
The scrubbis does the hull but is too buoyant to get down to the botton of the keel - it just floats back up when you try to push it down and then scarpe up the keel. Or maybe I'm doing it wrong.
 
A deck scrubbing brush, a couple of broom poles one or two 2l "Coke" bottles for buoyancy, a few bits of scrap wood to make adjustable coupling for the broom poles and you have a hull scrubber for a few beer tokens rather than £80 .
 
My experience in the Med is that scrubbing self-eroding antifouling is overkill. After a couple of scrubs there is no paint left and the fouling proliferates. In the past I have painted the lower hull in self eroding but the top foot or so below the water in hard scrubbable. This was fairly effective. Now I dn't bother, paint it all in self eroding and only wipe with my hand, or a cloth, about once per month. My keel is long term Coppercoated, which is working well after seven years or so although rust is beginning to get beneath it.
 
Google telescopic window cleaning pole with adjustable head. Plenty for about a tenner. I bought a couple in a bargain shop for £2.00 each.
 
cliff said:
A deck scrubbing brush, a couple of broom poles one or two 2l "Coke" bottles for buoyancy, a few bits of scrap wood to make adjustable coupling for the broom poles and you have a hull scrubber for a few beer tokens rather than £80 .
Click to expand...
The effort of pushing that through the water should keep you fit!

An old bloke in our club said they used to swim next to the boat with a line to hang onto, and clean the hull with their feet.
Wetsuit and football socks.
Does that work?
Could be 4 pints of HSB talking....
 
lw395 said:
The effort of pushing that through the water should keep you fit!

An old bloke in our club said they used to swim next to the boat with a line to hang onto, and clean the hull with their feet.
Wetsuit and football socks.
Does that work?
Could be 4 pints of HSB talking....
Click to expand...
Actually that is a method which I have been considering and I can see it being useful!!

I think this season I will have a go with just a cloth or sponge and see how much will just wipe off.
Pointless scrubbing off the antifoul for a bit of slime. I know we are developing patches of mussels and of course they will need more than a scrub to remove.
The water will be warmer when we return this year so swimming around the boat should be ok.
Thanks for all the tips.
 
I use half a sailboard boom with a brush set where the old goosneck fitting was . The brush is on 2 ft of handle set in the end of the boom. On the back of the brush i tie a small fender so the brush wants to float up against the hull. The curve of the boom gets around the hull curve
If I want to go deep i put the extending pieces on the boom that were there originally for different sized sails
Works very well, costs nothing- there must be thousands of old sailboard booms in garages everywhere
just push it into the water under the hull and the fender pushes it hard against the hull
I angled to brush so it sits square to the hull & can easily get one half of the hull and a bit of the keel
 
Hello Pete I see you have discovered the joys of snorkelling and hand scrubbing the hull. Most of the posts suggest using a long pole from on top. They are missing the fun and excercise of snorkelling. I have always cleaned my little boat by hand. It is a matter of having a range of tools available depending on the depth of slime or fouling. Certainly only rub as hard or harshly as necessary. I antifoul my boat at the start of the season early spring and find it is OK for about 6weeks. Then I start wiping it over. At first every 2 weeks then every week before a race. Yes the soft a/f does get erroded quickly. I use this to advantage in that by the end of the season and pull out time almost all the a/f has gone so no horrible build up. I end up with wet and dry sand paper to clean it up. The reason for this is that when the boat sits on the trailer access is very difficulty so not easy to scrape. hard enough to paint.
Anyway with other boats and my mooring buoy with horrible build up of mussels you need stout gloves and something really hard to smash them. A paint scraper is OK but for large areas and build up like your pontoon I would use a bricklayer's bolster. A wide cold chisel. This has the mass so inertia to smash those little and big blighters. Of course if they are big enough eat them. good luck olewill
 
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