Some help/advise needed on bottom prep
 

Sure would appreciate the boards help on this,

Getting ready to take the cocoon (shrink-wrap) off the boat next weekend and need some help/advise on prepping the bottom before I splash. Here is some needed background. First the boat is new, 26 foot long and has nothing but showroom wax applied to it. I live and boat on the Chesapeake Bay and the water here is brackish. I plan to keep the boat at my own dock and I have my own ramp, but I have no boatlift, but do have a trailer. Here is what I was planing on doing. I will not paint the bottom, so I was planning on pulling the boat out of the water on a regular basis to clean the bottom. The frequency will depend on the experience I gain with each pullout. I know I need a boatlift but that will have to wait until next season.

So here are the questions:

Do I just wax. And if so, what wax do you all recommend that will make cleaning the easiest?

Or is there something else I can use on the bottom, must be clear, that will resist the barnacles
and Scum lines and make clean up easier.

I keep reading the posts on speed coats would they work in my situation?


OntheBay

Back to top. Gee no one has any experience or advice to give on this?:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

bottom coat
 

You might want to look into Dolphinite speed bottom coating. If you will be pulling and cleaning on a regular basis this should be good. Look on -- www.dolphinite.com ---Jer---

I live on a brackish lake in TN that gets warm in the summer. Hair grows on a hull no matter what you put on it.

I have kept boats in and pulled them for regular cleaning for years. Any of the low-pH hull cleaners do a nice job but is messy and you gotta wear gloves and it ruins your clothes.

Wax is pretty much gone in 2 weeks if you don't run the boat - one day if you run the boat.

Bottom paint helps a whole lot on cruisers and such (use the ablative kind).

If you have a performance boat, then get a lift. Period. $6 thousand and no more troubles.

I kept my 38 Cig in the water during the summer.
The eary months, May & june, I'd clean it once a month.
July and August would require twice a month cleanings to keep it pearly white and one more time before the end of the season in Sept.
I kept it on Long Is. Sound which is heavy with barnacles and growth.
I'd use a 50% mix of "On-Off" in a gardening pump spray canaster & then rinse it clean in 10 min.
The bottom doesn't get fouled as fast as the sides where the sunlight gets at it so while at anchor, a scrub brush while swimming would take care of it.
I don't klnow too much about speed coatings but I know that regular wax will slow a boat down!!
Dave