fppf
Contributor
Yeah, don't worry, its almost a dead port now.
Hull cleaners- post your gadgets!
- Thread starter fstbttms
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mike_s
Contributor
crazy question here... as I'm not a 'professional hull cleaner'. (or even an non-professional).
But wouldn't it be a LOT cheaper to clean the hull in the water than to haul it out?
haul outs aren't cheap. what $200 and up just for the lift? then renting yard space and taking the time to set it on blocks and stands.
(this is assuming you're not hauling it out for something else already. Where I live you don't do winter haul outs)
Then you've got to pay some guy to pressure wash it and clean up that mess and correct me if I'm wrong, but don't some states requires you to treat that 'mess' as hazmat? (so more disposal fees). (yet when oddly enough it's ok to scrape in the water...
)just curious....
fppf
Contributor
Can't speak for other areas, but yes haul outs are not cheap.
I think the going rate for a haul out is around the $150 to $200 range. You don't need to really move the vessel anywhere, they just lift it up and pressure wash it off. I think here if you don't use anything but water you can let it go down the drain.
Winter haul outs are a must up here, unless you have a very large commercial vessel. And even then you wont be going anywhere fast without an escort of an ice breaking ship. I have never seen an ice breaker in the Buffalo area.
I think the going rate for a haul out is around the $150 to $200 range. You don't need to really move the vessel anywhere, they just lift it up and pressure wash it off. I think here if you don't use anything but water you can let it go down the drain.
Winter haul outs are a must up here, unless you have a very large commercial vessel. And even then you wont be going anywhere fast without an escort of an ice breaking ship. I have never seen an ice breaker in the Buffalo area.
OP
fstbttms
Contributor
You are right, the advantages to in-water hull cleaning as opposed to hauling a boat out for cleaning are many. Cleaning a boat in its slip or at its mooring is cheaper, it is faster and the client doesn't have to move the boat. That being said, many California boatyards would love to see in water hull cleaning banned, as it would mean a huge increase in business for them. Some, have in fact, already come up with special hull cleaning haulout pricing in the event of such an occurance. But the reality is that even if boatyards made hauling for cleaning attractive, there are not enough boatyards to physically handle the volume of work. In the greater Bay Area alone, there are approximately 16,000 boats that live in the water. Hauling to clean them an average of 5 times a year would mean that the 8 or so boatyards we have here would be doing 80,000 haulouts/year. That breaks down to one haulout for cleaning every 15 minutes, every hour of every day that the yard is open, which just can't be done. And that's just here. In Southern California, boats need cleaning about 3 times as frequently as they do here, so the numbers are even more unwieldy there.
The bottom line is that in-water hull cleaning is a necessary and practically irreplaceable part of proper boat maintenance.
The bottom line is that in-water hull cleaning is a necessary and practically irreplaceable part of proper boat maintenance.
OP
fstbttms
Contributor
fppf
Contributor
Yeah, the small personal boat shops just leave them in the rack hanging and start washing. Then drop them back in when done. But again, up here the boats don't get nearly as gunked up because they don't live in the water. Most you have is a thick coat of algae.
sterlingMarineService
Contributor
fsttbttms: what the dryer motor you have hooked to it???
OP
fstbttms
Contributor
It's a 110-volt blower motor I got from Grainger.
Sorry, I don’t have pictures-it’s been over 30 years-but I’ll try to describe a couple of methods we used to clean ships (very expensive to dry dock.)
For very heavy barnacle growth we would use a scraper that looked like a flattened out garden hoe on a short handle-about 18” to 2’
For normal barnacle growth, we used a commercially available hydraulically operated brush. It looked sort of like a grinder, but had a hard nylon brush attached. The first time we used the hydraulic tool, we had a metal brush in place….it took the paint down to metal in quick order, so that turned out to be a bad idea.
Most of the work was in zero visibility therefore the method we used to “clean by feel” was to run a line under the boat and tie it off to the deck rails. The diver would connect to the hogging line and work his way down, under, and back up the other side, then the line was moved down two arms length. We could have two divers in the water at one time plus one safety diver with the equipment (compressor and hydraulic pump) we had.
c
For very heavy barnacle growth we would use a scraper that looked like a flattened out garden hoe on a short handle-about 18” to 2’
For normal barnacle growth, we used a commercially available hydraulically operated brush. It looked sort of like a grinder, but had a hard nylon brush attached. The first time we used the hydraulic tool, we had a metal brush in place….it took the paint down to metal in quick order, so that turned out to be a bad idea.
Most of the work was in zero visibility therefore the method we used to “clean by feel” was to run a line under the boat and tie it off to the deck rails. The diver would connect to the hogging line and work his way down, under, and back up the other side, then the line was moved down two arms length. We could have two divers in the water at one time plus one safety diver with the equipment (compressor and hydraulic pump) we had.
c
OP
fstbttms
Contributor
Hydraulic brush carts ((with nylon brushes) are used to clean pleasure craft here in California by a handful of dive services and the CPDA has a BMP for their use. But if if I'm a boat owner, I don't want my diver using one.
