Re: [bolger] Barnacle bottom cleaning

Jim Goeckermann wrote:

>
> Who has some cleaning experience here? Should I soak it first? Any of the
> commercial cleaners worth using, or just elbow grease?
> Thanks for any suggestions.
> Jim
>
>> Hi Jim
>
> Some time ago, I had an inflatable dinghy tied off in my slip in a Boston marina.
> At the end of the season the dinghy, an inflatable, had grown a beard all over the
> bottom and barnacles had begun to grow on the boat. I had no choice but to avoid
> the hard scraping etc. that was the prescribed old salt solution.
>
> Instead, I pulled the dinghy out of the water and left it out for about a week,
> long enough for all the growth to die.
>
> The next step in the process was to put the boat back in the water for just long
> enough that the dead stuff could get good and soft, two days, more or less.
>
> Then, on hauling the skiff and turning it over to expose the bottom, work with a
> hose and a fairly gentle brushing cleaned off all of it, barnacles, growth and
> all.
>
> I don't know whether or not that procedure would work on your fiberglass hull, but
> it was easy on my boat and on me too. I know that its traditional to scrub and
> scrape in hard manly fashion but this multi step, somewhat long, process seemed to
> do the job.
> Jim

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