Unbelievable Amount of Barnacles

D

dwarren

Member
exMember
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
RO Number
14233
Messages
461
Hauled boat yesterday (sigh...), and I have never seen so many Barnacles/growth in my life. In 30+ years of boating........used same paint, same brushes. Wondering if anyone else saw an "abundance" of growth this year? And yes, I used the boat every weekend.......
 
You are not alone.

I always do a short haul mid-season and the barnacles were out of control. It was not unusual to see boats in the lift getting scraped during the summer months.
 
Maybe its because of the " new " water in the GSB ??
 
I hired a diver in July to clean mine.
Since then I have used the boat more, even just for a ride.
You gotta run your boat every week or they build up.
I think I have some now as I can tell my top end is down and fuel burn is up.
Will see when i come out!
 
I run my boat at least once a week, usually more, and my trim tabs are covered in them this year.
 
They are bad enough, that I have had to start splitting the outdrive every other year and cleaning out the water intake area. They will grow on the inside believe it or not. With an I/O power package and in my location, I pretty much have to do a short haul in early August or be faced with a real mess at the end of the season. The available anti fouling paints for aluminum do not work well here. Wish we had something better!
 
Barnacles were not too bad this year (north shore, Port Jeff) - they were worse the prior two years. The soft growth was incredible. I usually go oug every weekend and scrub every other weekend. The boat sat for 3 weeks and I couldn't get on plane due to the soft stuff. It was an inch thick in places, and that's with good anti-fouling paint.
 
I guess I'm lucky this year, I just came out and only had a few barnacles but lots of slime I switched to Pettit Hydracoat and find it's working better than the others I've tried before. The Trilux also did a good job on the drives.
 
Yeah, maybe a more "powerful" paint....I did run the boat most every weekend if not twice a week so can't be that. Very odd......
 
I did not have any issues with growth on the bottom or the drives. Just barnacles on the props which I scraped twice on short hauls and once hanging over the swim platform.

Freeport is probably more affected by sewage dumping vs the cleaner water in the GSB.
 
The bay water heated up very fast this summer and we had a brown tide. Besides plankton, barnacles will eat just about anything including algae. Warm water and a lot of food mean a lot of barnacles. My theory anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top