Barnacles - How to remove?

[WChapelle]

I keep my boat on Tilghman Island on the Chesapeake Bay. I pulled the boat in preparation for hurricain Sandy and noticed barnacles attached to the bottom of the boat. I've had the boat for 5 seasons and this is the first time I've noticed so many.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get them off? Or, is it as simple as just getting a sharp scraper and applying some elbow grease.

Any hints would be appreciated.

 

[JVM225]

I use the scraper and elbow grease method. Plastic scrapers work well enough.
The secret for me is to get as much as I can with the power washer as soon as I take it out of the water at the end of the season. The moment it is blocked up the power washer gets fired up.

 

[WChapelle]

Unfortunately I didn't get to them rigth away. I went out today and actually cut my finger trying to snap one off. Guess I'll be rolling up my sleeves...

 

[dicor]

He's right once they dry they turn into concrete. I boat in Barnegat Bay which is loaded with them. I use an ablative bottom paint, I believe it's Pettit. I also use Interlux Pacifica Plus on the out-drive and it keep 100% of the barnacles away.

 

[WChapelle]

Thanks guys.

 

[Bugsy24]

A real easy way to scrape them off is to get a "Flexible" Metal wide paint scraper and a Broom stick and Duck tape the scraper to the end of it!! You have great reach so you don't throw out your back!! There's also a product they sell at West Marine for the out drives and Props and it's acid based and desolves the Calcium in the Barnacle Shells!!

 

[bahamabreisus]

Five yr old bottom paint is probably not working anymore. Time for a new coat

 

[WChapelle]

Repaint the bottom every year.

 

[bahamabreisus]

Good quality paint should last about 3 yrs, you said it was 5yrs

 

[Mr Salt]

Wash with muriatic acid. That will remove them and then wash off with water and dilute the acid.

 

[SeaRenity]

Let them sit. By the end of January minimal effort will be required to scrape them off.

 

[WChapelle]

Perfect, that's the best response yet. I'll just let them freeze their little gonads off. Then I'll pluck them off like JuJuBees. I'll bring a scraper as a back up plan.

 

[SCORPIO]

The warm winter last year allowed the water to warm up sooner and it stayed warm along time. This led to alot of marine growth problems. As others have said, scrape, pressure wash, and use hull cleaner if needed. A good sanding will help too.
You may find this amusing; I got a call from the yard that hauled my boat prior to Sandy. I had them do some work I normally do myself since they have it in their yard and don't allow DIY. Anyway, they tell me that my bill will be larger than expected due to all the OYSTERS they had to remove from my outdrives! Thats right OYSTERS. He said it took them a full day to remove and clean up the drives so they could work on them. He said they had more than half a five gallon bucket of shuckable sized oysters til they were done. The head mechanic tore up his hands pretty bad getting all the nooks and crannies cleaned. He said they are seeing tremendous amounts of growth due to the water temps this past summer. He also said that the new outdrive paints suck and I agree. He said they have something new they put on with an HPLV gun and its supposed to work well. We shall see.

 

[hottoddie]

Last winter had my props coated with "Mussel Buster" powder coat. Boat was pulled on 11/1 and props were almost barnacle free. The shafts and struts as well. I had primed them with Petit underwater metal primer and 2 coats of hard anti foul paint, same on tabs, rudders forget it, nothing stays on rudders in the prop wash. Dyna Plate was covered with barnacles, can't do anything about that either.