Tag: Bottom paint

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Cleaning a sailboat Hull, underwater, and the tools that you need:

Cruisers around the world have different ways of cleaning their hull. Different tools, different process, and techniques. But how do the professionals do it? The ones who are paid to do it and want to do it quickly and thoroughly, with as little setup time as possible, so they can clean many boats in one day.

Guest speaker Hank Schmitt from Offshore Passage Opportunities, a professional diver and sailboat captain for decades, demonstrates how he cleans the bottom of his Swan Sailboat “Avocation”. He shows what kind of tools to use, and how abrasive they should be. He shows how he uses a scuba tank, but leaves it on deck and uses it more like a hookah, but without any time consuming setup. He shows how he freedives, in a simple methodical way to get the whole hull done quickly.

Patrick Childress then shows a short excerpt from a video he did a year ago demonstrating how we use a Sea Breathe Hookah/underwater breathing Apparatus to clean our cruising sailboat as we sail around the world. To clean our bottom. It’s remarkably similar…but different too! Be sure to watch both videos. The link to Patrick’s older video is in the video below.

No matter what kind of antifouling paint you put on, including the most expensive antifouling paint, to Coppercoat epoxy, scrubbing the bottom of your sailboat is something you have to get used to doing, unless you want to be paying someone to clean your hull every month or so.  Boat owners, you can save money by cleaning your sailboats bottom yourself!

Learn some new tricks in the video below!

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