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?

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