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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Barnacles, mussels and grass, oh my!

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Initially Posted - 12/05/2009 : 19:11:55

We finally got some time to pull SL for the winter today. Our friend Chris joined us just to get some water time, plus he's moored on a live-aboard about a hundred yards from us, so it saves having to drive an extra car down to get back & forth from the ramp to the marina. The cruise over to the ramp takes about 20-30 minutes and I noticed that my speed log never registered the entire time. I didn't think much about it, other than mentioning it to Chris, who sometimes has the same problem on his 43' Polaris.

Other than some rollers from ferry wakes, the ride over was very nice, if brisk, it was just barely above freezing, and there was lots of frost on all the docks. We saw a very few other folks out sailing, maybe at total of three boats other than ours. Even though the dock was surging with the ferry wakes, and there was a fair breeze, we made the landing easily, and no broken bones this time.

Backing the trailer down for some reason was tricky, I had to pull it back out of the water twice because it kept angling off away from the pier. Chris pointed out that I was backing down the ramp faster than the tow strap was moving, so the tongue was bouncing up and down and wandering off to one side, causing the angle. Third time was a charm, Chris directed my speed down the ramp, Rita walked down the pier with the bow hook strap in hand and we got the pads about 1' under water. The first couple of times we had tried loading the boat with about 6" underwater, but I think the extra weight in the rear of the boat from the new batteries, new engine, etc. was making it squat, and the keel was catching on the bottom of the trailer. Anyway, we finally got it lined up, hooked up and pulled.

And you should see the bottom, or not, I guess, there's too many barnacles, mussels and actually less grass than I expected, in the way. The sea life pops off with fairly easy finger pressure, but now I understand why my speed log wasn't working!. I have some pressure washing to do. I guess that's what I get for letting the boat sit in the water for about 20 months. I was planning on having the bottom soda blasted, now I pretty much have no choice. I'm planning on putting at least 2-3 coats of Pettit Trinidad SR in place of the VC-17 that's been on there since we bought it. Several of my friends are using it up here & report good results with it.

After we recovered the boat, and rigged for trailering, we headed off to Salty's for a late lunch & a couple of beers. We got to watch a glorious sunset (film at 11) and generally had a good time. And best of all, no broken bones this time.

I'll post a few photos later, I just got called into work (yeehaw, I was planning on cocktails & hottub after all the work, guess it'll have to wait).

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

Edited by - delliottg on 12/05/2009 19:21:19

Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 12/05/2009 : 19:57:56

David,
If you gonna leave her in the water, you might want to think about finding a diver and schedule bottom scrubs about once a quarter.

Edited by - Tom Potter on 12/05/2009 19:58:29

Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 12/06/2009 : 12:24:25

Man, I just LOVE Saltie's!!

Let's see a picture of that bottom. These posts make us lake sailors feel good.

Agree that you should replace the VC17. Works great in our low fouling lake but not in salt water. Do you need to remove the VC17 or can you go right over it??

Edited by - Nautiduck on 12/06/2009 12:25:31

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 12/20/2009 : 16:11:35

Well, finally got a day that wasn't too cold, rainy, or have to work so I could pressure wash SL. Here's the starboard aft prior to pressure washing:

And after:

Port side showing hull & wing keel:

And after pressure washing:

Should have written my name on the keel, huh?

Can you guess where the barnacle was?

The mussels & grass come off pretty easily, but the barnacles, not so much. If you use the right jet pattern on the pressure washer, they pop right off with a satisfying thifffft-pop!, but you have to get right on top of them. If you don't, they just get really clean & white while mocking you. Once I learned the trick, I was able to knock them off with aplomb.

Lola came out and helped for a while by munching on random seafood that had accumulated on the ground. I figure it can't hurt her too much, and she only ate two or three of them before deciding she'd rather be snoozing on her bed by the TV where it's warm.

I've got about 90-95% of the boat "clean", there are still a few patches of mussels, grass & barnacles, but I went through two tanks of gas on the pressure washer, and my shoulder's complaining, so probably a good time to quit, besides, the Seahawks are beating the Buccaneers.

Edited by - on

GaryB
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4306 Posts

Response Posted - 12/20/2009 : 17:06:08

Is it an optical illusion or is your hull flexed in as much as it looks like in the second picture? Looks kinda scary!

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 12/20/2009 : 17:29:39

Hah, never even noticed till you mentioned it and I looked back at the photo. It does look flexed in, doesn't it? I assure you it's not, I think it's just the reflection off of the wet hull combined with the wide angle lens of my phone curving the water line.

Edited by - on

Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3321 Posts

Response Posted - 12/21/2009 : 10:26:43

David, when my marine guy launches a boat he backs the truck & trailer down to the water's edge, blocks the trailer wheels and then attaches the tow strap. He moves forward to tighten the strap, has his helper unblock the wheels and then backs easily into the water.
This obviously removes the problem of backing too fast with the trailer strap

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 12/21/2009 : 13:54:25

Holy seafood salad, Batman!

What paint did you use, and how long since you used it??

Edited by - on

islander
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4024 Posts

Response Posted - 12/21/2009 : 17:06:24

I think some of the round marks were left there from the octopus that was living on the bottom of your boat.

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 12/22/2009 : 20:48:45

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Holy seafood salad, Batman! What paint did you use, and how long since you used it??<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"> <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I guess that's what I get for letting the boat sit in the water for about 20 months. I was planning on having the bottom soda blasted, now I pretty much have no choice. I'm planning on putting at least 2-3 coats of Pettit Trinidad SR in place of the VC-17 that's been on there since we bought it. Several of my friends are using it up here & report good results with it.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Edited by - on

DaveR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2015 Posts

Response Posted - 12/23/2009 : 06:42:59

David, I pull my boat every 2 years and don't anywhere near that kind of stuff, basically no barnacles. Maybe change the type of ablative or make sure you're getting 2 coats or something?

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 12/23/2009 : 07:09:58

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by delliottg
 I guess that's what I get for letting the boat sit in the water for about 20 months... I'm planning on putting at least 2-3 coats of Pettit Trinidad SR in place of the VC-17 that's been on there since we bought it.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Well that explains it. VC-17 is a hard paint for fresh water or low-fouling salt water environments (like maybe Greenland). Trinidad is for high-fouling areas, but is also a hard paint--you'll have to strip it off now and then. What do people in your area think about Micron Extra, generally considered the premier ablative?

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 12/23/2009 : 20:51:07

Well, I did fine the first year with VC-17. The boat came with it, and I found some on clearance at WM at some point, so we put a new coat on top of the one that was on it, and had little to no growth over a season. However, we haven't taken the boat out of the water for something like 20 months now, and while I expected some growth, based on my experience before, I didn't expect anything like what she came out of the water with. Live & learn.

I was planning on having the hull soda blasted this year to do the Trinidad anyway, so this is just an added pain. Fortunately I got most of it off already, and if the weather's decent over the next four days, I'll get the rest of it blasted off, and see what I can do to start getting back down to gel coat on my own before taking it somewhere to be blasted.

I have several cans of VC-17 that I need to sell, anyone interested? I think two of them are red, and one blue, not sure of the formulations, but I can get that to you.

Probably my biggest problem is some of the barnacles were especially tenacious (or my blasting technique was over zealous), and took out little round divots of fiberglass with them, so I'll be doing some Marine-Texing or something to fill those in. I only know of one bad one, but there are probably more I haven't found yet. I'll be going over the hull with a close eye to find them all since it looks like the one I'm talking about went right through the gel coat into the underlying fiberglass. Is Marine Tex the way to go there since I'm just going to paint over it anyway?

Edited by - on

Rich P
1st Mate

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USA
77 Posts

Response Posted - 12/24/2009 : 07:12:17

Those little round divots are probably blisters.

Edited by - on

Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 12/24/2009 : 08:37:41

Marine-Tex should be fine. It is an excellent epoxy material and sands well. If you had a lot to repair then going with West System materials would be less expensive. Make sure the area is well cleaned.

Edited by - on

Dave5041
Former Mainsheet Editor

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USA
3758 Posts

Response Posted - 12/24/2009 : 08:51:30

Pearl has intact Marine-tex repairs that were old when I got her.

Edited by - on

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