Clean Your Bottom or Drag Your A**
Sutton says these two images show how quickly an untreated hull will foul in salt or brackish water.
Michael Sutton skippers an N47 named Southern Grace. He's also an accomplished marine professional, having operated a yacht management company in Charleston for many years. His response to another owner's post on the Great Harbour Trawler Association's website caught our eye, so we asked Sutton if he would be willing to be an occassional contributor to Trawler Times. Yes, he said, and so we begin with Sutton's treatise on the importance of a clean bottom.
First the GHTA post of June 4 by GH47 owner Norm Miller: |
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One thing I will mention is I did not have an appreciation for the importance of having the hull bottom cleaned. This was evidenced by our experience when we tried, initially, to leave Ortega Landing. As soon as we cleared the Ortega River Bridge and tried to run our normal cruising speed/RPM I sensed something was wrong. I knew the bottom had some growth, but it did not look that bad from the finger dock, I kept thinking, given we had the bottom cleaned sanded and painted in September that all we would have to do is start cruising and the growth would not be an issue.
Well, as we approached Jacksonville both engines were running hotter than normal and we had steam accompanying the exhaust water stream and the engines would not run faster that 2200 rpm. We knew something was wrong, but we thought we might just continue on a a reduced speed. But as luck would have it, when we hit downtown Jacksonville the train bridge was down for maintence and would not open till 2:00pm. Given that there was no way we could make our first leg to Fernandina Harbor Marina before dark, we turned around and went back to the dock at Ortega. Fortunately we did not have to move the boat from the dock till June 6th so we still had a slip. The next morning I changed the impellers, to be sure they were not the issue causing the over heating, even though that looked fine. The next day we attempted to leave again. Unfortunately the impellers made no difference, so we again returned to the dock, but this time docked bow in. Interestingly the growth was more obvious with the opposite side toward the finger dock. I jumped on the phone and called Blissful Bottoms and Bottoms-up dive services and fortunately Wade from Bottoms-up call me quickly and was in the water cleaning the hull at 8:00am the next day (never heard from Blissful Bottoms). Wade finished in about an hour (charged me $2.50 per foot vs the $3.00 he had quoted on the phone thinking the bottom was really bad, he normally charges $2.00). He said the bottom had a good layer of slime but not terrible, but the props were in need of being cleaned, zincs were still quite good. The prop speed was still there but it was 3 years old and no longer effective and it was pasted its prime. So with Wade gone, we fired up the engines at 9:30am and pushed off once again. Instantly I could tell things were back to normal, what a difference and no overheating and rpms were back to normal too! The experience gave us as “freshwater boaters” a new appreciation for the importance of cleaning the bottom in salt water on a regular basis. So, we have talked with the diver here in Brunswick ($4.00 per foot) and he recommended we do it every 6 weeks while we are not cruising the boat. |
 A boat's bottom is probably never cleaner than the day she is first launched.
Sutton's response:
While in the yacht management business in Charleston S.C., we used to get at least one call each summer from new runabout owners that had made the mistake of leaving their boat in the water for more than a few days without bottom paint. Here is an article from our old website with pictures of a boat that had been in the water just four weeks: Growing your own reef isn't hard to do. Just put your new boat in the water without anti-fouling paint and wait. You'll have large sheepshead feeding on her bottom in just a week or two. The pictures at the top of the page are of a new boat that had been in the water a little over four weeks. This is a common mistake with boaters new to salt water and one that can cost big bucks to have corrected. Anti-fouling paint doesn't totally prevent growth, but can slow it down enough to make it manageable. Here in the Charleston area, the 5 to 7 foot tidal range and swift currents promote the growth of barnacles and other marine critters. They multiply like rabbits and cover the boat's bottom quickly once they get started. Algae can form a thick coating on your boat's bottom as well, blooming rapidly and creating an environment that attracts other organisms. Shafts, struts, props, and especially outdrives are all effected. In fact, outdrives are the worst with all their nooks and crannys. A fouled bottom can slow your boat to a crawl when it's moving through the water. For sailors with a fouled bottom, the wind still pushes your sails just as hard, but your hull isn't slick enough to convert that energy to speed. The result is excessive heeling and stress on your sails and rigging. Picture yourself heeling way over, rail plowing through the water, waves washing into the cockpit. All the while you're making less than 2 knots. You get the idea. If you keep your boat in the water, the answer for our area is twofold. First, apply a quality anti-fouling paint on the bottom annually or at least once every two years. Second, supplement this with regular bottom cleanings. Once a month in during the winter months, and more often as the water temperature rises. Let the reef grow elsewhere. In my experience, the stronger the current, the more prominent the growth. We are currently docked in a basin in Florida with no current and get our bottom cleaned about once every 6 weeks. If we were in Charleston Harbor, we would have it done once every 3 weeks this time of year. Also, I have had countless people tell me if you run your boat often it keeps the growth at bay. After cleaning bottoms for nearly 20 years as part of our service, I never saw any appreciable difference one way or the other. Fair winds, Michael |
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Michael Sutton owns the N47 Southern Grace, which he keeps at Palm Coast, Florida.
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