barnacle removal from hull

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Start with a pressure washer and you might have some luck then you may need to start some scraping and a plastic ice scraper would be a good start. I hope they are not too extensive and after just a month, I can't imagine it's too bad.

Greg
 
Trailer the boat out, clear barnacles off hull with a plastic spatula, then pressure wash. I also use StarBright EZ-on EZ-off to get rid of the rings left behind.

I'm going to have my boat bottom painted for next season. Twice a year to clean off those critters isn't enough.
 
A Fishin C":dzas5a6g said:
any tips?:idea:

boat left in water for one month
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Google( barnacle remover). There are several products on the market. I had used 1 in the past. It was a rather strong acid base. OK on the fiberglass. I wouldn't get on trailer if poss. or skin.
It worked well. Required a little elbow grease but removed most rings and stains too.
Good luck
 
I too suggest power wash as soon as possible upon removal from the water. As in - pull it out and power wash immediately. If the hull is still wet they will come off easier. If they dry - you practically need a hammer and chisel.

I also use a metal scraper - I find the plastic is just not tough enough. Just be careful not to gouge with the side of the scraper. If held flat it will work better.
 
Muriatic acid is used to dissolve the under side of the barnacles. You need to wear heavy rubber gloves, and eye protection. Be very careful.
 
thataway":w8gu1sjx said:
Muriatic acid is used to dissolve the under side of the barnacles. You need to wear heavy rubber gloves, and eye protection. Be very careful.
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Also, be careful to not spill the muriatic acid on the trailer (eats galvanizing) or the tires. It also takes off the tanic stain you get from some waters - just be sure to flush generously with fresh water and then rewax.
 
Had our boat in the water for 5 months this year... surprisingly clean when pulled out due to bottom paint.

But what about barnacles on the sonar transducer? Is there anything I might try other then muriatic acid to remove the remaining rings on such a small area?

Thanks,
Dan, Tanya, and Hannah on C-Renity
 
Just a side comment: be thankful many of you live in the PNW with cold water temperatures. Our boat is not undercoated and is stored in a rack. When we removed her from the water after only one day, I found the lower hull was covered with tiny barnacles. And this was after it had been waxed! Long Island Sound waters reached 73 degrees F. this summer, which refelects a growing trend toward higher summer water tmperatures. The marina staff scrubbed it down with soap, water, a brush with elbow grease, and rinsed with a high pressure water nozzle.
 
Was that an 8 hour day, 24 hour day, or 36 hour day? i have never seen a barnacle grow to a point where anything more than a small larva has attached in a short period. I am sure that are people on this forum who know more about barnacles than I do. Long Island Sound is extensively studied.

The barnacle is a crustacean, not a mollusk. The larval forms attach with a "glue" which is very similar to the blood clotting mechanism in animals, so it "reacts" very rapidly. There are several species of barnacles in Long Island Sound. I suspect that you had the larval forms--I am sure that there are others who know far more about barnacles than I do.

73 degrees is not all that warm in comparison to other waters--for example many areas of Florida are over 90 in the middle of the summer and have only dropped to the mid 80s now.

There are also cold water barnacles. I suspect that there could have been many factors involved in the attachment of the larva.

How large were the barnacles? Was the base hard---was acid necessary to remove the animal?
 
thataway":3zwcq2ll said:
Was that an 8 hour day, 24 hour day, or 36 hour day? i have never seen a barnacle grow to a point where anything more than a small larva has attached in a short period. I am sure that are people on this forum who know more about barnacles than I do. Long Island Sound is extensively studied.

The barnacle is a crustacean, not a mollusk. The larval forms attach with a "glue" which is very similar to the blood clotting mechanism in animals, so it "reacts" very rapidly. There are several species of barnacles in Long Island Sound. I suspect that you had the larval forms--I am sure that there are others who know far more about barnacles than I do.

73 degrees is not all that warm in comparison to other waters--for example many areas of Florida are over 90 in the middle of the summer and have only dropped to the mid 80s now.

There are also cold water barnacles. I suspect that there could have been many factors involved in the attachment of the larva.

How large were the barnacles? Was the base hard---was acid necessary to remove the animal?
Click to expand...

Hello Bob. It was August 22, 2013. We had just got our boat back after the accident, and after the lower hull had been waxed, we took her to Greenport, NY for one overnight stay. The total time she was in the water was approximately 30 hours. When we got back to our marina, I asked to inspect the lower hull while she was on the forklift, to see how the minor repairs looked. It looked great, by the way. I was shocked to see the lower hull plastered at a rate of perhaps 2 or 3 per square inch with tiny dots about 4 to 8 mm in diameter. I swept my hand over them, and they did not budge. They did feel hard like braille dots. The person at the marina told me they were barnacles, and that is why they wash down the hull with a brush before pulling her from the water. To be honest, I don't know what baby barnacles look like. If I had the presence of mind, I would have removed some of them and examined them under a microscope. I read that in the Cypris larval stage, in which the barnacle does not eat, it attaches itself to a surface. Then, only 12 hours later, it builds its six sided shell. (http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk). So, it is entirely possible these creatures were barnacles, albeit very young ones.

73 degrees may not seem warm for your neck of the woods, but for us, it is 3 degrees higher than 30 years ago. This increase in temperature has substantially and negatively impacted our marine environment. I had a marina owner tell me a few years ago that barnacles have been much more problematic since the waters have gotten warmer, but of course, that was his subjective comment born from his experience.

Rich
 
Thank you Rich.

The link you gave does not work--but a little searching showed
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag...microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artjan99/barnac.html Which I suspect you took your information from. I have no experience with barnacles in the Long Island Sound area, only in the Gulf, Calif. and a little in Europe.

What is unusual in your instance is that the boat was moving at speed apparently part of the time. Goose neck barnacles attach in areas of eddys where there is minimal water flow, but the hard barnacles seem to be a bit more resistant to attaching to rapidly moving hulls. This rate of growth is far more than I have ever seen in a 30 hour period in Florida. I wonder when you were still enough for attachment of the larval stage? It sounds as if the concretions were what was left--a good loop would have been adequate to see what was there.

Thanks
 
I see your point, Bob. Our boat was probably in the slip at Greenport for no more than 26 hours. That's so little time and yet so many barnacles that it has really got me curious enough to examine the hull and attached organisms next year. Also, I'm glad you had the attention to detail to bring this issue to light. I don't always tilt my motor up while in a transient slip if I'm there for just one day. That is going to change, because I don't want barnacles growing on and within my engine's lower unit.

Thanks,

Rich
 
No bottom paint here and I haven't found it necessary in the PNW, even with the boat in the water for up to 3.5 months. The key is running the boat daily and cleaning the bottom about once a month. Without a wetsuit, this can be cold!

The only place where I get significant growth is the trim tabs, transducer, and engine mount.

I've used a credit card to scrape barnacles off the bottom (no, I didn't pay someone else to do it...). Worked fine, except it destroyed the credit card. Once the barnacles are off, hit the hull with Sno Bol toilet bowl cleaner, let it sit for a few minutes, rinse liberally, then wax the hull.
 
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