Zebra Mussel protection on fresh water Outdrives
 

For the first time ever last summer, my boat had a ton of zebra mussels
attached to the outdrives of my boat when I pulled it out in October. I keep
it in Lake Erie for the summer.

I use VC-17M anti fouling paint on the bottom of my boat and love it but I
don't want to paint my outdrives - the boat's a 1993 and the outdrives (Volvo
DuoProps) look like new. I'd hate to ruin their appearance with a paint.

Does anyone know of a clear product - spray or brush - that would protect the
outdrives from zebra mussels?

Except for this last summer, I've had great success spraying the cleaner called
"On / Off" (some kind of acid) and brushing the outdrives clean easily. Those
darn zebra mussels were tough as nails to remove. I had to use a plastic paint
scrapper and then scrub with the acid to clean the outdrives.

Any ideas? A guy at work suggested "Scat". I never heard of it.

Thanks!

One old suggestion - so I don't know if it's still considered valid - was to
use your boat regularly. The early life cycle stage of the organism doesn't
attach very strongly, so moving the boat through the water at a few knots of
speed dislodges them. A brochure from the MNR years ago said to operate your
boat every week in warm water and every two weeks in cooler water.

I haven't heard of anyone with big engine problems, but that's also a
concern - the little critters blocking up your cooling water flow. Regular
running should work for that too.

====

Charles T. Low
www.boatdocking.com

====

"Wklkj" wrote in message
...
For the first time ever last summer, my boat had a ton of zebra mussels
attached to the outdrives of my boat when I pulled it out in October. I
keep
it in Lake Erie for the summer...

WaIIy wrote:
On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 08:54:52 -0500, "Charles T. Low"
[withoutUN] wrote:


One old suggestion - so I don't know if it's still considered valid - was to
use your boat regularly. The early life cycle stage of the organism doesn't
attach very strongly, so moving the boat through the water at a few knots of
speed dislodges them. A brochure from the MNR years ago said to operate your
boat every week in warm water and every two weeks in cooler water.

I haven't heard of anyone with big engine problems, but that's also a
concern - the little critters blocking up your cooling water flow. Regular
running should work for that too.

====

Charles T. Low


Very good advice , Charles. I noticed the little creatures attach when
you let a boat sit for a while. I had an Alpha One on one boat and they
clogged the cooling inlets one time.



I don't think we have zebra mussels downunder... yet:-) However a few
years ago they did find an infestation at a Darwin marina (popular with
long distance cruising yachts, who were the most likely suspects)

The answer there was a bit scary but apparently worked:-) They sealed
the marina entrance & dumped something like 100 tonnes of chlorine in
along with a good dose of copper sulphate.

Everybody got a free bottom clean because on the news at the time, it
seemed to be killing literally everything in the marina water.

Probably a bit extreme for your sterndrives I guess but hey, if they
really do bother you:-)

K

Harry Krause wrote:
K. Smith wrote:


The answer there was a bit scary but apparently worked:-) They
sealed the marina entrance & dumped something like 100 tonnes of
chlorine in along with a good dose of copper sulphate.

Everybody got a free bottom clean because on the news at the time,
it seemed to be killing literally everything in the marina water.

Probably a bit extreme for your sterndrives I guess but hey, if
they really do bother you:-)

K



You're suggesting that we dump mass quantities of a known killer of
aquatic life into our waters?

Are you some sort of bio-terrorist?

We all know you're a liar Krause & stupid as dog dirt but just how
stupid can you really be???? Again if you need help to setup a kill file
with my name then just ask; we're here to help even lying union scum
like you.


K

Harry Krause wrote:
K. Smith wrote:

Harry Krause wrote:

K. Smith wrote:


The answer there was a bit scary but apparently worked:-) They
sealed the marina entrance & dumped something like 100 tonnes of
chlorine in along with a good dose of copper sulphate.

Everybody got a free bottom clean because on the news at the
time, it seemed to be killing literally everything in the marina water.

Probably a bit extreme for your sterndrives I guess but hey, if
they really do bother you:-)

K





You're suggesting that we dump mass quantities of a known killer of
aquatic life into our waters?

Are you some sort of bio-terrorist?



We all know you're a liar Krause & stupid as dog dirt but just how
stupid can you really be???? Again if you need help to setup a kill
file with my name then just ask; we're here to help even lying union
scum like you.


K


You're denying that copper sulphate is a known killer of marine life?
There are flyers out on the stuff.

Of course I'm not!!! I had hoped anyone of even low IQ would have seen
that this was not a recommended thing, however it is a measure of how
seriously we try to stop introduced species getting in that they did
what they did.

Sadly this country has let too many introduced things get a hold before
we belatedly recognised the problems some accidents some deliberate,
these days all ships have to exchange their ballast water at sea before
entering Oz but things like mussels are literally outside that so
eventually I guess we'll have them also.

Anyway as usual even on topic stuff you can ruin it, your usual non
boaters' perspective I guess.

K