shmoo
Well-Known Member
Just how smooth should a cruiser\'s bottom be...
For each of the last five (or maybe it is six now) years since we got the boat we have had it out of the water for a weekend just before the summer cruise for a pressure wash and a coat of Cruiser Uno. The pressure wash has always taken off the little bit of green stuff that was coating the bottom. Never any need for anything more drastic. There are odd patches where there is a bit of flaking and I peel/scrape that away until I get to where it is adhering well and move on. Then I slap on the one coat wonder.
The result is that the bottom is quite uneven: its hard to quantify but I would say that there are very few square meters of the boat which do not have one or two palm sized patches where peel has been removed and are perhaps 0.5 to 1.0 mm below the "sea level" of the antifould layer generally - if you see what I mean.
The admiral noticed other boats around us with beautiful smooth bottoms, not even with the goose pimples left behind by the roller, and made inquiries and found out that this may make the boat go faster. I can see that next year I will be ordered to make the bottom smooth.
Question is: does it really make a difference? I don't really want to spend a week in early june tricked out like a member of the riot squad wielding a heavy sanding machine.
For each of the last five (or maybe it is six now) years since we got the boat we have had it out of the water for a weekend just before the summer cruise for a pressure wash and a coat of Cruiser Uno. The pressure wash has always taken off the little bit of green stuff that was coating the bottom. Never any need for anything more drastic. There are odd patches where there is a bit of flaking and I peel/scrape that away until I get to where it is adhering well and move on. Then I slap on the one coat wonder.
The result is that the bottom is quite uneven: its hard to quantify but I would say that there are very few square meters of the boat which do not have one or two palm sized patches where peel has been removed and are perhaps 0.5 to 1.0 mm below the "sea level" of the antifould layer generally - if you see what I mean.
The admiral noticed other boats around us with beautiful smooth bottoms, not even with the goose pimples left behind by the roller, and made inquiries and found out that this may make the boat go faster. I can see that next year I will be ordered to make the bottom smooth.
Question is: does it really make a difference? I don't really want to spend a week in early june tricked out like a member of the riot squad wielding a heavy sanding machine.
