When we bought our boat, the former owner freely acknowledged that the bottom hadn't been painted in 6 years of ownership. On the hard, after pressure washing, it looked ok to us.
I have to admit; the first 2 years we didn't do anything about it. Then we started to notice everyone else was going faster than we were. When we saw a seagull paddling away from us one day while we were heeled over at about 25 degrees and practically standing still, it was clearly time for action. I looked at our speed: 1.2 MPH.
Al decided the best course was to clean the hull; by getting rid of the growth surely we could beat a stupid bird next time out. Since we are both divers, it was fairly simple; tank, reg., a 25 ft. hose.
Al decided he would do it the first year, and then we would alternate. Our way of sharing the fun.
So in summer of'07, Al geared up and disappeared under the boat. There must have been a lot of growth because I didn't see him again for over 2 hours. Our boat isn't that big. He spent the time scrubbing and scraping 1000's of barnacles from the hull. "Wow honey, was it fun for you? That's alright, it'll be my turn next year."
As I looked at him dripping on the dock, I noticed there was whitish stuff covering his wetsuit. "Did you scrape off the old paint?" I asked as I went in for a closer look. No, it wasn't paint; it was small cylindrical shapes, billions of them. What was that?
I stepped even closer.... Ughhhh! They were MOVING! Billions of tiny marine maggots, crawling and squirming all over Al, his suit, his bare neck, must have been some sort of larvae- Gross! I hit him with as much hose water as I could before he mentioned that I was drowning him, and then ugh, helped him out of his suit. I mumbled something about a project inside that needed me and stumbled below while he cleaned up his gear.
Well, last year we must have hit the jackpot or something, my brain cell isn't clear on the how, but we pulled the boat and sanded, and painted the bottom a beautiful red. The paint is "multi season" but last year it spoke loudly. Hahahahahahaha, no bottom cleaning for me.
Sometime this spring Al started with the "This year it's your turn to clean the hull honey" routine. I love to dive, and cleaning the hull is part of boat ownership. But the prospect of a close encounter with marine maggots; well you know my reticence to the task.
Last weekend, I donned my wetsuit, checked for the ninth time that ALL my hair was tucked inside my dive cap, and went under my boat for the first time. The water was warm. Good. I approached the prop. A few barnacles clung to the floppy prop, and I dispatched them easily. I started to feel my way across the hull with the scrubber. This is Braille diving: dark, zero vis., but the growth I expected was nowhere to be found. The hull had a light coat of slime, easy to scrub off. I was done in less than an hour.
The maggots have moved on to some other poor sap who doesn't paint his bottom. Multi season, hmm.... I told Al I'll clean it again next year, I enjoyed it so much. I figure that by 2011, those icky maggots might be staring to lust after our boat again. Then it's his turn.