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.