Advise on cleaning hull & tubes

[Ajsimp]

Hi, looking for a bit of advise on the above.
I usually take the boat out of the water after every weekends use, but this year I was offered to leave it on a mooring. This has been great and I have been using the boat more than ever.
I was in such a hurry to get the rib into the water I didnt bother painting on any antifoul. I have started to notice that as you would expect there is algae growing. Not a huge amount of it but enough to notice loss of performance, taking longer to plane and general response.
I am planning to leave the rib in the water for another month during which i will be replacing the trailer.
The question I have is, what is the best way to remove the growth from the hull (and lower section of the tubes) without damaging anything?
And what would you recommend on using as an antifoul for next season?
Thanks

[boristhebold]

Jet wash on hull, lower tubes some rib cleaner, light green cleaning pad that's not to abrasive, perhaps fairy power liquid and hot water, rib conditioner etc.

[Fender]

Jet wash hull then oxalic acid, TFR on the tubes and she'll look new

[Dry Run]

A decent pressure washer will remove the weed and slime, but wont remove any discolouration from the hull. You need to use Y10 (or make your own with oxalic acid and wallpaper paste - as already suggested), to get the hull back to how it should be. A "magic sponge" (JML product) should clean the tubes without damaging them.

For next year (if you are keeping the boat in the water), you will need to abraid the hull with sandpaper (to give a key for the antifoul) apply a good coat of Primacon primer and then I would suggest 2 coats of International Interspeed Ultra. Some say that surf board wax will protect the tubes from weed growth - i've never tried it.

Good luck!

Steve

[Ajsimp]

Thanks for all the suggestions!! I will definitely be leaving the rib on a mooring next year, even with the crap summer we have had in galway I have been using the boat almost every weekend!

[paulbrown22]

Has it ever been antifouled? Once you start antifouling, you have to keep maintaining it each year, and it's very hard to remove completely should you want to undo it in the future... A lot of people on here seem to prefer RIB's with no antifoul.


Especially if it's only staying in for a few months at a time, and you have a trailer, if it's never been antifouled personally I'd just clean it, Y10, polish, etc., and if necessary pull it out every couple of months for a quick pressure wash of the hull and clean of the tubes.


We used to keep a 6.5m RIB in the marina year round that had never been antifouled, we just pressure washed it about every 6 months to clean the hull. My current Ribtec was antifouled when I bought it, but as it only does a couple of months at a time in the marina, I haven't renewed the paint, and just pressure wash it once back on the trailer.

[DGR]

Originally Posted by paulbrown22

My current Ribtec was antifouled when I bought it, but as it only does a couple of months at a time in the marina, I haven't renewed the paint, and just pressure wash it once back on the trailer.

It depends where it's kept - after a month on my mooring, it needs to come out for a jet wash/scrub. If you can go for 6 months, then I'd guess that the old/existing antifoul is still having an effect - either that, or there's something in the marina water that means nothing wants to grow there!!

I'm not sure how true it is, but I've been told that boats in Aberystwyth marina/harbour don't need antifouling because the metals that still leach into the rivers from the old mine workings (lead and copper, I think) that feed the marina keeps the harbour free of any fouling. I know that on my mooring, just upstream of a bridge, I get completely different stuff growing on my hull to the first mooring downstream of the bridge, which is less than 50m away - so it can be very location dependant!!

Having had a mooring for 10 years, I'm coming round to launching as required being the best solution....

[Andy_]

Has it ever been antifouled? Once you start antifouling, you have to keep maintaining it each year, and it's very hard to remove completely should you want to undo it in the future...

What's the story on this? My rib came antifouled and since I don't plan on keeping it in the water, I was just going to leave it as is. I don't plan on removing it but just figure if don't top it off, It will just come off over time, with no harm done?

[paulbrown22]

That's the approach I've taken with my Ribtec, as I don't want/need the antifouling, and don't want to repaint each year! But if it's been applied properly (and possibly you have several layers on top of each other as well), getting back to bare gel coat isn't going to happen just by driving the boat around, and will need a lot of manual effort. The top (active) surface of the antifoul will wear down as you use the boat and it will become less and less effective, but there will still be a good layer (or layers) of paint on the hull that will stay there for a very (very) long time. If you don't mind the patchy look (I don't!), fine, it won't do any harm, but it won't provide any antifouling properties, won't look great, and could affect top end speed (if you really care about that).

[Ruskie]

"Rib Shine" is an excellent product for cleaning tubes... £ 15 odd quid... but the grime will just fall off.. ! I use it once a year for a nice shine... put on "RIB PROTECTION" for a nice shine and UV protection..