A first time boat-bottom scrubber respects the Pros..

[nolatom]

I get to borrow this nice Luders 34' Sea Sprite sailboat from a friend on occasion, so yesterday I volunteered to clean the bottom of brackish "moss" from the bottom paint and boottop.
Nice day, warmish Lake Pontchartrain, viz about one foot, reducing to about one inch as I scrubbed. Took me a while for this weekend rec diver to get used to it, easy to lose orientation, in a pea soup of silt, growth, and ablative red paint.

Besides scuba gear and scrub brush, the most essential piece of gear turned out to be a Carnival throw from the Krewe of Tucks (an irreverent bunch whose King's throne on the lead Carnival float, is a toilet). So they throw TP, goofy beads, and-- miniature toilet plungers! For unknown reasons I'd saved one of ther latter, and it was worth diamonds on this job, strong enough suction to hold me in, but weak enough that I could slide it around without losing suction grip that I could scrub against. I shall attend this parade again next year!

It ain't breaking rocks, but still hard work-- I went through my little 30cf Pony toute suite, and from the water dispatched my friend to my LDS for an Air 80 to finish the job. Didn't keep time (too shallow for computer to make sense of), but estimate I spent about an hour and a half underwater (max depth a dizzying 7 feet) breathing hard and working hard ( I expect the pros are faster and more efficient). But it felt good to be able to hang in there and complete the job. So be nice to your scrubbers and tip ' em well, they earn it. My " tip" will be getting to borrow this nice "plastic classic" sloop for a little cruise.

And (please don't shoot me) -- I logged it as a dive. Because it was a hell of a lot more challenging than most of the other pleasant dives in clear-water paradise I've done. Plus I wanted the weight and air use data in my log in case I ever talk myself into doing this again ;-)

I have now done two "muck dives with a purpose". This one, and another marina dive a couple years ago when I'd lost my trifocal glasses (yeah, I'm old) overboard in the slip. What a challenge that was, too, in less-than-zero viz, where am I, can't read my gauges, which way is up-type conditions. I logged that one, too, hee hee. So I have great respect for underwater recovery divers too

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I've cleaned the bottoms of my own boats too many times. It never got any easier or faster so last month we began paying a pro to do it. Worth every penny. I would never think of counting them as dives though. Just because it's hard work doesn't make it a dive.

 

[Bubble&Squeak]

Had my first go at that a few weeks back, hard work, was interesting to see how much air can be used once even in shallow water.
The waves were only small but the rocking of the vessel, bouncing around laying face up into the boat made me feel a little green. How was it on the lake?
Wish I had a suction cup like you, the hull is so slippery, at the start especially.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I've been scrubbing boats for side money for several years now. It doesn't get easier but it can get more efficient by having a system and not jumping around and missing spots. Lake boats and ocean boats are two different animals. Ocean boats can grow some serious stuff especially the metal parts, they can look like a sponge farm. Barnacles can be a bitch to get off too out from in between places like the screw and the cutlass bearing and other tight places.
I used to straddle the keel with my body inverted (almost like riding a horse or motorcycle) on some of the full keel sail boats. My bubbles going forward away from me, kind of trippy if you do it long enough. You forget you're inverted and your brain tells you the bubbles should be going the other way, lol!.
I would start at the stem and work my way back to the stern. One day the tide was low and as I worked my way inverted down the slope of the stem scrubbing away taking turns on each side as I moved along, I got to the lowest point of the keel and found myself unable to move jammed in between the keel and the muddy bottom of the harbor with my tank, valve, and reg burried in that foul blackish gross silt. I worked myself loose but it was a little disconcerting. I had no idea the harbor was that shallow at low tide. But low tide and deep keel sail boat don't leave much room.
Then I started thinking what if I couldn't get loose and the tide continued to go down?
So unless it's high tide I won't do that anymore!
Even after I completed to job, when I got out I still had a big wad of that nasty harbor bottom sticky mud/clay on my 1st stage.

 

[Bubble&Squeak]

Glad you got out of that one, I can see how you would miss that detail, it's an unusual circumstance.
Time and tide wait for no diver.

 

[Wookie]

Log any damn thing you want, Tom. The Scuba Police will not be reviewing your logbook any time soon. I'm here in Nawlins today, BTW. Looking at boats in Buras.

 

[joe10540]

I spent a season cleaning hulls and we used a 100' hose on the reg and left our tanks topside in a cart jumping in with just a weight belt and fins worked by feel mostly as it was usually zero viz. I quit when something came in and pushed me off the boat I was cleaning and I never saw it. No thank you!

 

[nolatom]

Log any damn thing you want, Tom. The Scuba Police will not be reviewing your logbook any time soon. I'm here in Nawlins today, BTW. Looking at boats in Buras.

Hey, Frank, thanks and good on ya, good luck with boat-shopping downriver. Call me if you stay in town long enough to meet up. I'm downtown at work, or uptown at home. Just had a fun 2-day sail over to Madisonville and back, in that same 34' sloop which with clean bottom, now screams like a banshee, making 5.5 knots instead of a crummy 5.0 ;-)

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I spent a season cleaning hulls and we used a 100' hose on the reg and left our tanks topside in a cart jumping in with just a weight belt and fins worked by feel mostly as it was usually zero viz. I quit when something came in and pushed me off the boat I was cleaning and I never saw it. No thank you!

I've been approached by 900 lb sea lions that look like a refrigerator underwater, make me beg for forgiveness for being underwater in "their" harbor. Talk about needing to change your diaper afterward.

 

[nolatom]

Had my first go at that a few weeks back, hard work, was interesting to see how much air can be used once even in shallow water.
The waves were only small but the rocking of the vessel, bouncing around laying face up into the boat made me feel a little green. How was it on the lake?
Wish I had a suction cup like you, the hull is so slippery, at the start especially.

The marina where I was was pretty calm, as was the boat. And this Luders design is an old-school "wine glass" hull shape, so more vertical-type underwater shape than a "flatter bottomed" sailboat or a powerboat would be.
I don't know how I'd have done it without the plunger, you need something to pull against with your non-scrubbing hand. I was thinking we'd have to rig a line underneath the boat to grab onto, then I thought of using a suction cup with a handle, like the glass pane installers use. But couldn't find one. Then I thought of bringing a plunger along just for the heck of it, not thinking it would acutally work.
But it did.