Dumb Q : Barnacle Scraper
 

Bruce In Bangkok wrote in
:

He replied, "not when
you're as scared as I was!"


I think my worst scare was when we were bringing back Geoffrey's
Endeavour 35 sloop from Florida. There was just two of us, Lloyd and I.
Lloyd at got me up for my watch about midnight and I was to get him up
at 3:30 for his 4-8. About 3AM, I'm 100 miles due S from Charleston in
3-4' seas making good time in a broad reach staring at the radar on a
completely moonless night when "something" to my starboard went
WOOOOOOSH!, a moment of silence, followed by a HUGE roaring SPLASH! that
went on and on.

......then, total silence, the sea noise as if nothing ever happened. No
monster wave, no swamping, no going off course, as if it never happened.
BUT IT DID! Supercharged on adrenaline, Larry was WIDE AWAKE for hours
and not sleepy at all. 3:30 came and went. 4 - 5 - about 6:30 Lloyd
came out looking refreshed from the V-berth and a shower in the tiny
head. "Why didn't you wake me?" My hands were still a little shaky and
my face must have still showed my supercharged state.

I don't think if a Navy Boomer had done an emergency blow and come out
of the water 50 yards off my Starboard beam it would have made any more
noise. I didn't hear any tanks blowing or mechanical noises emergency
blows are sure to make...and I didn't hear a blowhole open to vent a
whale, but that's what it must have been.

We had a second scare during breakfast that was more manageable. We had
a table that hooked to the helm stand and had just pigged out on Lloyd's
excellent Jamaican hot scrambled eggs mixed with fried onions, bell
peppers and potatoes smothered in some kind of spicy Taco cheeze whiz.
We were talking about the third book he was just finishing during the
cruise, his favorite pasttime at sea.....when this MONSTEROUS wooden
cable reel nearly as tall as our mast just floated by. The RADAR alarm
didn't sound, I rushed around the helm to watch the scope and saw
NOTHING, no return at all from our little 2KW Raymarine on a stern stick
up 25'. The wind had died in the morning as the sun came up, the sea
had calmed, but we were still making 5-6 knots on the beam reach with a
150 Genoa wrapped around the main well, a goodly apparent wind over the
airfoil. It just floated there....EMPTY. Now, during the night the old
cruiser was making a good 8 knots and we both started thinking about
what would have happened and were we would be if we'd slammed into that
damned reel at 8 knots in the pitch dark. It would have surely broken
the bow off and sent her to the bottom as she had no watertight
bulkheads like the Amel Sharki Geoffrey sails, now. There was as much
reel in the water as above it...

Dogged tired, I did crash, finally, and slept about 6 hours before Lloyd
got me up again to take the 16-2000 in light air so he could sleep. I
woke him about 2AM and slept some until we got to the Charleston Jettie
entrance about dawn, a beautiful sight every time I point the bow to its
slot on the South side of the rocks.....

That WOOSH still holds the record over the 15-17' seas we encountered on
another trip up the coast caused by "rushing" I hate. The boat just
becomes a tiring thrashing machine over 9' to fight until the damned
front passed....but it didn't WOOOOSH in the dead of night!

Dumb Q : Barnacle Scraper
 

Bruce In Bangkok wrote in
:

Nope, you are wrong.

Read the directions and you'll see that nearly all post TBT paints are
"self-cleaning" or some similar description. If you don't sail about a
bit you will get growth. Thus, if your yellow banana boat is tied to
a stump and never moves you WILL need to scrape and paint every year.
Move once in a while and you get three years, or more.



You guys all lack "The David", our amazingly physically fit, Adonis
looking to attract the most beautiful free women, POLICE DIVER, who
lives on the docks in his restored antique sloop....

Every month, David, for a VERY reasonable "donation" to support his boat
habit on cop's pay, dives every boat in the dock and simply wipes that
bottom so clean you cannot believe it hasn't been in the yard in 2
years. He inspects and changes zincs, cleans out cutlass bearings like
new, polishes the crap off the shafts and wheels, makes sure everyone's
air conditioner seawater inlet is free and clear along with all the
underwater electronic sensors and inspects the whole hull for anything
that looks bad.....at his convenience on his schedule. Generous
"Donations" are put in paper bags in the cockpits to keep David
interested in your boat's health. Boat money couldn't be better spent.

You guys need to breed yourselves one of these wonderful boys to take
the drudgery out of hull cleaning. Noone ever "scrapes" a hull with
David around. When he dives your boat, he takes a stiff nylon brush and
his cleanout tools for the holes and crannies. There are no barnacles
that need scraping......How awful....

Once you get a David, don't forget to invite him AND HIS HAREM to
whatever dock parties the wife doesn't want to attend. I didn't even
know Charleston had that many beautiful, unmarried, "seat covers" to
drape over the cushions....simply amazing.

It's 10PM in Charleston and STILL 62F down here on the rivah. God I
love global warming! Motorcycled around in 79F on the bank clock all
day.

Dumb Q : Barnacle Scraper
 

On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:02:13 GMT, "David L. Martel"
wrote:

Wilbur,

My intention wasn't to pick on the man, per se.

But that's exactly what you did when you wrote, "Here we go again!
Another negligent boater who ask for assistance on a topic that lends
credence to my observation that few sailors have any pride these
days."

You owe the OP an apology for your poorly worded or thoughtless attack on
him. He has not neglected his boat, which seems to be what you accuse him of
doing.

Dave M.

But, of course he was lying when he spelled it "wasn't". He actually
meant "was".

Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

Dumb Q : Barnacle Scraper
 

Larry wrote:
WaIIy wrote in
:


Shame on you Larry for not putting epoxy on the raw sides of the hole
you drilled.

That doesn't sound like you.




What difference would that make on a chopper gun sailboat??

It certainly can't become "delaminated" as there are no laminations to
start with.


Every thread is a "laminatin" as far as end-grain water migration
is concerned...

Dumb Q : Barnacle Scraper
 

On Dec 28, 6:01*pm, Bruce In Bangkok
wrote:
On Sun, 28 Dec 2008 12:08:25 -0800 (PST), Two meter troll

wrote:
On Dec 27, 6:53*pm, Brian Whatcott wrote:
My *kid, home for Christmas, had me weld up a barnacle scraper.
A long wood handle with a sharp steel blade. Does this seem like a
good idea to you? * If not, how? and with what?

Thanks for clueing me in.

Brian W

why do you "need" a barnical scraper?

I dont think ive ever heard of one.

Never been to sea? It's "barnacle" by the way.
Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

aww look Bruce is trying to have a spine......... how pathetic.

Dumb Q : Barnacle Scraper
 

"David L. Martel" wrote in message
...
Wilbur,

My intention wasn't to pick on the man, per se.

But that's exactly what you did when you wrote, "Here we go again!
Another negligent boater who ask for assistance on a topic that lends
credence to my observation that few sailors have any pride these
days."

You owe the OP an apology for your poorly worded or thoughtless attack
on him. He has not neglected his boat, which seems to be what you accuse
him of doing.


Don't hold your breath . . .

Wilbur Hubbard

Dumb Q : Barnacle Scraper
 

"Brian Whatcott" wrote in message
...

My kid, home for Christmas, had me weld up a barnacle scraper.
A long wood handle with a sharp steel blade. Does this seem like a
good idea to you? If not, how? and with what?

Thanks for clueing me in.

Brian W
I use both one of these things that looks like a hoe thats been straightened
and a 7 in 1 tool (fancy name for paint scraper from Lowes and HD). The hoe
thing lets me get some momentum on the swings because of it's lenght and
because of the wood handle is easy(er) to find when I drop it. It stands up
with the scraper end on the bottom. The 7 in 1 tool (with parachute cord
lanyard) is handy for the running gear and light stuff.

Dumb Q : Barnacle Scraper
 

On 28 Dec 2008 17:26:01 -0600, Dave wrote:

On Sun, 28 Dec 2008 21:46:06 +0000, IanM said:

So why do many professionals dry dock their vessels only every third
year? Obviously you've never encountered modern antifoulings. What are
you still using Wilma? Rendered mutton fat, quicklime and chilli powder
I suppose.

I don't think Neal can afford the good stuff.

Workboat paint. Tar over steel.

Casady

Dumb Q : Barnacle Scraper
 

On Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:06:02 -0800 (PST), Frogwatch
wrote:

Using a long handled scraper to remove barnacles is a very normal
thing. Go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy a straight edged garden
edger. It looks like a hoe with a straight blade instead of a bent
blade.

Also heard them called log peelers and ice chisels. If you round the
corners slightly they won't dig into the gel coat.

Casady

Dumb Q : Barnacle Scraper
 

"Larry" wrote in message
...
Bruce In Bangkok wrote in
:

Although, on second thought, he did say "sharp steel blade". I assumed
about 1/16th flat stuff for the blade, unsharpened. No need to sharpen
it like a razor.
Cheers,


My visualization was of something resembling steel claws or pointy steel
teeth to dig into the barnacle pile to gouge them loose....(c;]

It always amazes me how people think of a boat hull as some kind of
really strong, nearly indestructable material you can scratch but can't
break. I think of them as more like a thick eggshell you can nearly
poke your finger through if you poke it in just the right place.
Reality is something in between there, I suspect, much more fragile than
the average passenger would like to know about.....headed out of the
harbor into the Atlantic.

The CORA (Charleston Offshore Racing Association) insists everyone have
a big diaphram manual bilge pump so my buddy Joe asked if I would
install one for him. I showed up with my little battery-powered drill
motor with a hole saw the appropriate size for the fitting to go in a
line of fittings about 6" below the toerail. "How are you going to put
a hole in it with that?", he quipped. I picked my spot, pressed the
center bit of the hole saw where I thought it should go and pulled the
trigger. 30 seconds later, I backed the thin little plug out of the saw
and handed it to him. "It's only this thick.", I mused. "There ain't
much to 'em.", I continued as his mouth hung open. "Hold this in the
hole until I get the nut on the inside, will ya?", as he was staring
through the big hole I'd just punched into his plastic boat. The hull
couldn't have been more than 3/8" thick, maybe 4 layers of mat at the
most. Those Whales can move quite a bit of water...probably more if
you're in a panic watching it get lower and lower in the ocean.

Larry,
You can't judge all boats by that any more than you can judge all boaters by
the words of Wilbur.
Lots, if not most of the older boats have very strong hulls. When I
installed the thru hulls on my Phillip Rhodes Traveler I found about 2.5" of
hand laid glass in the bilge area. That boat was built by a commercial
fishing boat builder in the PNW in '79. My '63 Chris Craft "Caribbean" broke
loose of a very bad anchoring (by a paid "professional") when Floyd passed
by and ended up hard on the rocks on a causeway with some gouges and scrapes
in the gel. The gouges were at the most 3/8 deep, which may be death to
some, but not the tanks that Chris Craft built. The bulkheads were still in
place with the tabbing (pretty heavy duty and tabbing doesn't really
described the quality) unbroken. That boat was refitted and is still in
service.
I bet your little handheld computer that the ratio of boats that sink
because of failed equipment over hulls breaking up is probably 1,000 to 1. I
personally only know one sailor that lost his boat to the hull being
destroyed and he was run over by a frieghter!
I like the motion of a heavy boat and am willing to sacrifice light air
performance. Shipping containers have very hard corners.
Don't mean to offend anyone with a go fast light weight boat, but that's my
opinion and what I practice.