Dusting off the Hull

[Dolphin]

Mike,
you said in another post that you had Dulcamara antifouled.
Last weekend (Easter 2012) I wanted to clean the prop, second time since the last slipping, it had a lot of barnacles on it. It was antifouled 11 months ago. I also found the anode VERY loose.
Beside that, I thought the hull had a little dusting of marine critters on it so I cleaned it off just using a large scouring pad. The improvement in performance is almost like when she was just antifouled. I actually overshot the mooring and the boat sails a lot better. Just having that light slime on it must slow it right down.
I spent about an hour in the water all up with just a shirt and shorts on.
Like Phillip my wetsuit has shrunk. I find it hard to get down to the keel as my lung capacity has increased so much lately. (fat doesn't float does it?).

[Miker]

Greg, we usually get a good six months out of the antifoul before the slime starts to slow her down. You can tell when she's really slippery as a little water gets in the cockpit from a Venturi effect from going so fast!

Scrubbing is OK in the lake, but in Pittwater it's frowned upon, plus there are visitors from below you can't see. I sometimes scour the waterline from the dinghy though. One of the guys at the marina in Careel used to dive on boats, but became worried about all the chemicals he was continually swimming in.

With all the rain recently, we might get a bit longer thn 14 months this year.

[storm petrel]

Once you start cleaning the bottom you have to keep it up if you use self ablating anti-foul. I have a mate who races (way too seriously) and to keep his boat competitive he has to clean the hull every three weeks, because he said after you clean it once it fouls much faster. As for the prop, I have used propspeed for years and find that provided it is correctly applied the prop says barnacle free for 12 months.