SPRING PLAN PART2 /BELOW THE WATER LINE

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SPRING START UP BELOW /THE WATER LINE

Part  2 of Series

Below the water line, some of these suggestions require you to protect your self and the environment. I cannot stress this enough as most materials suggested are corrosive and are not  environmentaly friendly.

The first step is to check around the water line area. If you do not have bottom paint you will very likely have an area of stains and growth along the hull sides. Quite possibly under the whole bottom, do not be surprised if one side is worse than the other. The growth is always more substantial on the sunny side. To clean this up you can use a product designed for bottom cleaning , this is basically muriatic acid in different dilution levels. You can purchase muriatic acid in the paint department at a paint supply or swimming pool supply store. You will also need to purchase a couple of quality squirt bottles, you will need to dispose of them when you are done. NOTICE: If you are on a galvanized trailer do not proceed, it will blacken the trailer, the other area to watch is trim tab rams the black plastic will whiten. You can re spray these with black spray paint.

The next step requires you to protect your lungs, eyes and hands. Don't start without a garden hose and water set up to reach around the boat (this must be done ahead of time). Wet the ground area under the boat try not to get the hull wet,  put on mask gloves and long sleeve shirt, pour the acid in spray bottle and spray the whole boat from water line down to keel. You can also spray the drive(s), prop(s), and trim tabs. If you have support posts going to swim platform spray these also. You will hear and see it work. Do not let it dry, you will see it turn yellow as it works, now completely rinse the whole area (everything you sprayed with the acid). You will notice right away the areas you missed or areas that need to be done again. NOTICE: your spray bottle will not last very long the spring inside breaks down, also be aware this works the best after the hull has been pressure washed. This same acid will remove rust from the deck. In this procedure I recommend a wax lined cup and a small brush. You brush the acid on the rust watch it yellow and immediately rinse. If you need to repeat until rust is gone. Gel coat is not affected by this treatment, as gel coat is a type of plastic. Now that the hull is clean and dry you can inspect for damage, service drive and touch up paint, replace anodes if required and prep for bottom paint if this is your plan. What is important, is to note your water line at launch time, there is a good reason for this over time a boat will pick up weight and the water line is a tell tail that excessive weight has been gained. Your boat can also show a list or tilt to port or starboard you can eliminate a list by reloading the boat ( if not have a repair shop check the boat). You can move batteries or anything you store with weight to the high side of the boat. One way to keep track of your waterline is by photos or measure from rub rail to water in the same place each year, please be sure you have the same fuel ,water and gear load every time you do this. If you are noticing the list or water line is getting deeper it's time to find out were the boat is getting wet. It could be a flotation locker or rotten structure. This will change fuel burn and performance it does not take much water in foam or structure to make big changes to the boats performance.

Now that the bilges and the outside hull is clean it's time to check all below the water hardware. Check all the screws that hold tabs brackets etc. if they move or are loose pick up some 5200 sealant pull them out and rebed them (a tip for 5200, have a can of WD40 and clean rags handy for clean up it works like a dream spray on rag or surface to make clean up easy). Now check all thru hull backing blocks this is were every thru hull passes through the boat on the inside, some boats have wood blocks, this is were the nut inside tightens down. Quite often over time these blocks get water logged. What happens is the blocks freeze in the winter and crack allowing a mystery leak to start. If you see that the block is soft cracked or the sealant looks bad, change the block. New boats now come with starboard plastic blocks complete with labels instead of wood blocks this is a great upgrade. If you have purchased a used boat and around the out drive housing out side there is sealant "this is a red flag" this should not be there take your boat to a repair shop and have them determine why this had to be done. This is usually a sign of a rotten transom and it will leak. The issues I just went over are generally why you have a mystery wet bilge when the boat is just sitting at the dock. If you have  water leaking in from the back of the engine in an inboard outboard configuration, when not running it is probably bellows related (please read mechanical start up blog for details) this will sink the boat!! A bellows leak will only get worse the only way to slow down this leak is to trim the drive all the way down and leave it down until you pull the boat.

If you have bottom paint how do you know weather or not to repaint, and what to use. Please check your local rules and environmental laws before you sand or pressure wash anti foul. WARNING: If you pressure wash bottom paint and you are next to another boat you will cover it with a mist that contains anti foul this will dry and stain the canvas and the gel coat. This can do a lot of damage to your neighbors boat, and leave you liable. Do not do this. If you can see thru the bottom paint or have excessive growth it's time to repaint the hull. A few things to check before repainting, is the water line high enough? If you have areas above the line were growth is taking place then you need to raise the line in this area, not all around. Take a line at the back corner one inch above growth and make a new neat line to were you have an appropriate amount of paint showing above the water line on the side of your boat. On any areas were you are raising the paint line you must sand the gel coat area. If the rest of the paint has been pressure washed clean your okay to go. WARNING: do not paint transducers, anodes, trim tabs, or drives with regular bottom paint. As a matter of fact you should leave 3/4 of an inch around the drive housing on the transom. The reason for this is anti foul is high in copper, the drive housings are alloys, the tabs are stainless steel. If the bottom paint and the other metals touch you are promoting corrosion. If you paint the anodes the anti corrosion system will fail. If you paint the transducers the electronics such as depth sounders won't work. Now that you have checked all the mechanical items and parts mounted to hull you can check see if there is any damage to the gel coat fix these areas first then proceed with paint.

  Bottom paint on the sides of the hull will wear faster than the bottom so some years you may require what's called a belly band. This is when you paint an area just around the water line as wide as you need and touch up any damaged or thin spots in the bottom paint only. Bottom Paint Tip; black anti foul always works the best. Why? Well I am not exactly sure but maybe they put more copper in this color. To purchase the correct paint for your boat see your local supplier. There are different paints for different boats (slow speed paint, high speed paint etc.). Here are a couple of things you need to know about anti foul paint. This paint is designed to be in the water all the time, it works by allowing the growth to slide off or slof. So anti foul is always wearing away. If you leave anti foul out of the water to long it dies or dries out and flakes away at this point it no longer works. Painting a trailer boat with anti foul only makes sense if your boat is always moored in water. Remember if your buying a boat, bottom paint can hide a world of sins. I always wonder why a trailer boat is painted, if you paint a small boat you may hurt the value, and have a lot of questions when you go to sell it. You do not need to apply bottom paint really heavy a nice even moderate coat works great.

Always remember to do the block spots. Bottom growth if allowed to build up will prevent your boat from being able to get on plain or preform. It's a good idea during the season to inspect the growth and keep your hull clean. Over growth will also cause motors to overheat, bellows to get damaged, transducers to fail and a host of other issues. If you have this issue make a service plan to keep it to a minimum.

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