Underwater hull scrubbing

The guy I used to sail with decided that he would have the hull cleaned before Mersea Week, and he got in touch with the Frogman, as he called him. The hull was supposedly scrubbed.

Soon after he decided to take to boat out after all, and he found that the frogman had just scrubbed around the waterline
 
I wonder how effective that is. My son used to crew on a well known yacht and the owner paid for him and another to go on a Padi diving course, so that they could clean the bottom regularly.
It was a fairly short lived experiment.
 
I used to use a diver at Mersea (not the older gentleman) and he did a great job. Three scrubs a year kept her good, and was about half the price of a list out and wash
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Well, I've just invested in a Scruibbi hull cleaner. I have Coppercoat, so I'm not concerned that it will remove antifoul. It seems to work, but I suspect that it needs using fairly regularly to stop a build-up.
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The Scrubbis website suggests 3-6 times a season, which is quite often!
 
DavidonMersea said:
The guy I used to sail with decided that he would have the hull cleaned before Mersea Week, and he got in touch with the Frogman, as he called him. The hull was supposedly scrubbed.

Soon after he decided to take to boat out after all, and he found that the frogman had just scrubbed around the waterline
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Sinbad the scrubber! :ROFLMAO:
 
Marinas may have rules about diving. We were in Brighton many years ago and a boat neighbour and new friends lost a self-steering blade to the bottom. It turned out that he would have to pay for a minimum of three divers to be in attendance. In the end, his son, a qualified diver, did it when no-one was watching.
 
pvb said:
You shouldn't get massive fouling in Titchmarsh, so I'd guess you should hardly have to use the Scrubbis.
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I tried it earlier this year and it certainly removed a fair bit. That was before she was hauled out and a proper job done. I'm hoping that now she's clean, I can keep her pretty clean for another 12 months or so. Titchmarsh isn't excessively bad for fouling, but it does get noticeable on the side facing south. I'm used to the Clyde, where fouling is very light, and where most marinas have fresh water entering them, so my standards aren't calibrated for the East coast yet!
 
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AntarcticPilot said:
I tried it earlier this year and it certainly removed a fair bit. That was before she was hauled out and a proper job done. I'm hoping that now she's clean, I can keep her pretty clean for another 12 months or so. Titchmarsh isn't excessively bad for fouling, but it does get noticeable on the side facing south. I'm used to the Clyde, where fouling is very light, and where most marinas have fresh water entering them, so my standards aren't calibrated for the East coast yet!
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It's a learning curve. I'm fairly settled now into a routine of 2 years in the water, then brief liftout for antifoul and polish, then back in for another 2 years. It's been working OK for some time now.
 
pvb said:
You shouldn't get massive fouling in Titchmarsh, so I'd guess you should hardly have to use the Scrubbis.
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I've noticed in recent years that Barnacle fouling is a lot more of a problem than any other kind of growth. They have an interesting life cycle, including a male member as long as themselves , and make it up as you go gender. Seems a pity to interfere with all of this but if anyone knows how to get them to move on to someone else's boat I would be very interested.

p.s. They will rip the Scrubbis if you don't use that rubber strip that comes with it.
 
I bought a Brizo several years ago and it is ok. It doesn’t clear the grassy stuff around the waterline, needs a metal scraper for that. And the murky east coast water makes it impossible to see where it’s done or not.
 
LONG_KEELER said:
I've noticed in recent years that Barnacle fouling is a lot more of a problem than any other kind of growth. They have an interesting life cycle, including a male member as long as themselves , and make it up as you go gender. Seems a pity to interfere with all of this but if anyone knows how to get them to move on to someone else's boat I would be very interested.

p.s. They will rip the Scrubbis if you don't use that rubber strip that comes with it.
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As far as I can see, the rubber strip is a fixture on mine - it may be removable, but I haven't investigated it and can't see why you'd want to remove it unless you had very soft antifouling, and in that case something like a Scrubbi would not be a good solution.

I also got the Scrubbi waterline brush; I haven't tried that yet.
 
LONG_KEELER said:
..,. They have an interesting life cycle, including a male member as long as themselves , and make it up as you go gender. ...
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Er ... not quite. In the most widespread UK barnacle, the acorn barnacle, it's up to 7.5cm long for a body length of up to 1.5 cm; Semibalanus balanoides like most barnacles is hermaphrodite - a simultaneous hermaphrodite which cannot fertilise itself. Allocation of resources to the male function depends not only on population density, for the obvious reason, but also and (somewhat) less obviously on the degree of exposure to wave action - it’s a large investment of resources to be damaged, even if a new one is grown every year.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
As far as I can see, the rubber strip is a fixture on mine - it may be removable, but I haven't investigated it and can't see why you'd want to remove it unless you had very soft antifouling, and in that case something like a Scrubbi would not be a good solution.

I also got the Scrubbi waterline brush; I haven't tried that yet.
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Perhaps the design has been improved upon.

As far as I can remember, there was a grey rubber strip of around 1.5 " that stood proud of
the blue material that forms the bulk of the cleaning head. This stood "proud" of main head and used for attacking harder shell growth that would otherwise perhaps damage the blue material. To attack normal slime, weed etc you would leave the strip out.

After a long gap of non scrubbing, I was merrily cleaning away and discovered that I had
severely damaged the blue head by scrubbing against lots of barnacles.

Since then, I have modified the head by covering it with AstroTurf, secured by CT1 and I
think it works better. :)
 
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