Name your alternative Scrubbis Frankenstein creation!

[MagicalArmchair]

Triolas Coppercoat is weedy, and whilst I can pay £100 for a lift and scrub, I'd prefer a solution I can do in the water to keep her clean as a whistle.

This has been discussed on the forum quite a lot and I have grazed on the many great PBO ideas including this one: http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?434023-Hull-cleaning-tools-for-use-afloat

So my options are:

• Scrubbis = £80 and you can't do your keel.
• Telescopic window cleaner = £20, okay, so no brush here, so it would need something attached to it. Attach an empty 2L coke bottle for buoyancy... Remove the bottle to do the keel...
• A stainless steel brush designed for pools and a long telescopic arm Add said coke bottle again. Around £30 (bit concerned about how abrasive the SS brush might be too..)...
• Scrubbing posts at MYC! (this would be a whole tide when I could be doing this sailing thing of course)

My gut is telling to to take the hit and try the Scrubbis... any suggestions or other inventions I should give a go to? Or means of scrubbing the keel... We are on the Medway so I don't fancy donning my swimming trunks and doing it from the water :encouragement:.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I use a stiff "Nylon" bristled pool brush and a long telescopic pole. I turn it over and use the edge of the plastic back to remove more firmly attached fouling.

 

[duncan99210]

Get your diving gear out of the cupboard and spend an enjoyable hour or so with a good stiff scrubbing brush.

 

[MagicalArmchair]

Thanks Roger, do you add buoyancy to it at all or use it as it comes?

 

[William_H]

Get your diving gear out of the cupboard and spend an enjoyable hour or so with a good stiff scrubbing brush.

Plus 1 for buying a wet suit mask, snorkel and fins. Get some enjoyable excercise. You will need a weight belt to counteract buoyancy off the wet suit to get to the bottom of the keel. If you complain about cold water remember colder water gives less fouling. (theoretically) I have warm water and need weekly in water scrubs after about 6 weeks from new a/f. olewill

 

[rogerthebodger]

Thanks Roger, do you add buoyancy to it at all or use it as it comes?

At the moment I have not added any buoyancy but I think I will to make it easier as I get older.

 

[FairweatherDave]

I copied Daydream Believer iun the previous thread..... "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"

Found it works really well, until it all grows back.....(knackered AF). Now its warmer I want to source a cheap weight belt.

 

[MagicalArmchair]

I don't really relish the thought of hopping in the Medway - all the strange floating things put me off somewhat... ...might try it.

£152 for a lift, scrub and relaunch - nope, not doing that as I'll need another one before autumn. I've spoke to a pool cleaning company for their recommendations, I'll see what I can cobble together.

I'm thinking a long aluminium boom, bend the end section through 90 degree, connect said nylon scrubber, an empty 2L bottle coke...

 

[Vanguard]

Having faced the same dilemma "Do I buy a Scrubbis" I did and can now say first hand I wish I hadn't. If there are any small crustaceans on the hull the Scrubbis will self destruct. I wasn't aware there were any crustaceans from the surface it just looked fibrils of weed. Although I had chosen the stiffer blade on the Scrubbis I first realised something was awry when I saw pieces of blue foam floating around the boat and these soon became lots of pieces as more floated to the surface. When I pulled the Scrubbis out whilst the stiff blade attachment was ok the foam blades were in tatters. Interestingly Scrubbis are showing little interest in making buyers aware of this.
My advice is don't buy one I wish I hadn't.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Plus 1 for buying a wet suit mask, snorkel and fins. Get some enjoyable excercise. You will need a weight belt to counteract buoyancy off the wet suit to get to the bottom of the keel. If you complain about cold water remember colder water gives less fouling. (theoretically) I have warm water and need weekly in water scrubs after about 6 weeks from new a/f. olewill

Bill

There is a British alternative to your Australian one.

Only available from about the 1st July to 31st August.

Half inflate dinghy . Go over the side armed with brush of choice and wearing canvas army shorts
and thick bobble hat for protection.

Scrub freely , and don't forget the prop, you should be able to touch it.

Before getting into the dinghy first decide
how you are going to get back on board.

 

[Yngmar]

My bog standard deck brush. Sometimes extended with a pair of (reusable) zip-ties to strap it to the boat hook.

Also this and a diving mask.

 

[johnalison]

I think I have mentioned before that you can do quite a good job, excluding the keel, with a strip of carpet attached to cord each end rocked back and forth by two people down the length of the boat and angled to get as far as possible when passing the keel. Cost zilch.

 

[Concerto]

Mark

Why not use Lady Di (scrubbing trolley) at MYC? They even have a salt water high pressure jet wash. It costs, according to the MYC web site, £129.50 for annual unlimited useage.

 

[LittleSister]

Or just accept you'll go slower with a bit of fouling?

 

[William_H]

Or just accept you'll go slower with a bit of fouling?

What????? A boat deserves to be able to perform to it's best no matter how manky it might look. A weedy bottom gives poor performance which can easily result in an unmanageable boat in a tight squeeze. I am occasionally asked to go on other people's new to them boat for a bit of guidance. It really urks me more than any other failing if the bottom is fouled.
never if I cna help it will I sail on a boat that is not clean underneath. Mind you we can get some pretty save fast weed growth. olewill

 

[boggybrn]

Bill

There is a British alternative to your Australian one.

Only available from about the 1st July to 31st August.

Half inflate dinghy . Go over the side armed with brush of choice and wearing canvas army shorts
and thick bobble hat for protection.

Scrub freely , and don't forget the prop, you should be able to touch it.

Before getting into the dinghy first decide
how you are going to get back on board.

Now I know where I have been going wrong - I haven't been wearing a bobble hat!

 

[LittleSister]

Or just accept you'll go slower with a bit of fouling?

What????? A boat deserves to be able to perform to it's best no matter how manky it might look. A weedy bottom gives poor performance which can easily result in an unmanageable boat in a tight squeeze. I am occasionally asked to go on other people's new to them boat for a bit of guidance. It really urks me more than any other failing if the bottom is fouled.
never if I cna help it will I sail on a boat that is not clean underneath. Mind you we can get some pretty save fast weed growth. olewill

I'm not advocating one approach or the other, but just pointing up that option. It surely depends how the owner wants to balance sailing and maintenance, and the type of sailing they do.

And what constitutes a boat performing to its best?

My own boat has been in the water for two seasons (due to lack of funds and time, and liking to have it available to sail out of season). So it's weedy and slower than it could be. It just so happens I have managed to get a rare week off work soon. Would my boat be 'perfoming to its best' if I spent a couple of days scrubbing it (some holiday!) and the boat performed faster for the rest of the week while I sailed around the usual weekend local haunts; or if it performed longer, and I had the whole week available to go somewhere new (Belgium, perhaps?), albeit at a bit slower pace.

Ideally of course, I'd just be able to call the yard and tell them to lift and scrub it, still have the whole week available and increase my speed and range, but money is tight (and yard may be booked up). Others will have different priorities/problems/resources.

 

[LittleSister]

p.s. Avoid the need to scrub your hull - just disconnect the speed log!

 

[johnalison]

p.s. Avoid the need to scrub your hull - just disconnect the speed log!

If your hull is that foul it will have disconnected itself. It will have to be the GPS as well, and steer entirely by autopilot, since the helm will feel awful. One half of my rudder fouled more than the other last year, resulting in an unacceptable pull to the side when motoring or sailing.

 

[MagicalArmchair]

Soo, just been hauled out by the wonderful people at MDL Chatham, who kindly took some shots of Triolas bum.

Shows the Scrubbis works! I scrubb(is)ed last from the dinghy on a mooring before we set off from the Deben in August last year, went around the boat in about 45 minutes I suppose. She launched in March last year and hasn't come out since (hence all that keel growth).

Now.... how to do the bleeding keel whilst in the water.... snorkle anybody?