Pressure washing

[Steve_B]

So I took the Parker for a hull wash down at a well know marina in Poole, some 4 weeks after the last wash. There was a layer of slime build up but not weed growth of any sort.

The crew took it over and I got a phone call from the marina asking for full payment, rather than send me an invoice. A few mins later got a call from the crew to tell me that the pressure wash had failed to remove any or much of the slime and they had to rub it off with Tesco sponges. The guy then washed off the dirt they removed!

I rang to give my concerns about paying for a service i did not get and their response was to say that success depends on what is on the hull and they would call me back (they have not). Quoting from their website "our heavy duty pressure washer, operated by our yard team will remove almost anything from the bottom of your boat".

Now maybe a years worth of growth might be a tough job, but a few weeks?? One of the crew said he could have done a better job if he had p****d against it!

Wont be using them again

[Downhilldai]

If you google:

"our heavy duty pressure washer, operated by our yard team will remove almost anything from the bottom of your boat"

you get:

http://www.parkstonebay.com/marina/s...ing-launching/

[martini]

Amazing. Powerwashing may be a crap job but take a bit of pride in whatever you do is all anyone asks no?!

Did mine last night after about 4 weeks since last time. Took me an hour and a half and that was on the trailer which makes it a pain. I just sprayed some bleach on it then it came straight off with the PW.
I've got a 190 bar petrol washer, different league to a B&Q jobbie but still smaller than what a 'professional' outfit would use.

[Tim M]

I've had this too. Steve, you'd be surprised how quickly the growth becomes too difficult to remove with a pressure washer especially if your hull isn't anti fouled. I paid £67 recently for a lift out and pressure wash and ended up having to do the same as you - scrubbing the hull by hand getting covered in nasty green stuff.

[colblinky]

I remember getting pressure washer's alongside when in Portsmouth or Rosyth DY provided by the same operator who provided the cherry pickers PTP I think but its been a while. Anyway these were landrover trailer unit's were known as warwick pump's to the Matelot's and had adjustable pressure mainly used for side party and ideal for the task unfortunately when used on the super structure on full power and steaming they had a tendency to strip the RASH (radar absorbent sheeting) which was under the paintwork. Worked brilliantly with the seaboat's which were searider's /pac's at the time gentle washdown with some GP detergent first then the warwick pump and the hull looked liked new. Pretty sure these unit's would be availble to the gen public through speedy hire or some similar outfit for about the same price as you would pay a marina to do the same job.

P.S Silver packeted Gen Purpose detergent is no longer available as it was found to be carcinogenic in the late 90's it was also used onboard by the chinese laundry to wash Jack's civvie's

[PeterM]

Originally Posted by Tim M

I've had this too. Steve, you'd be surprised how quickly the growth becomes too difficult to remove with a pressure washer especially if your hull isn't anti fouled. I paid £67 recently for a lift out and pressure wash and ended up having to do the same as you - scrubbing the hull by hand getting covered in nasty green stuff.

£67 is a bargain ! I wouldn't have minded but it was considerably more than that & I was doing the scrubbing !