On May 1, 2009, at 12:36 AM, GILASAILR@aol.com wrote:
. An old girl friend of mine taught me that 'friction is my friend' - works wonders on unwanted aquatic growth too! A little more abrasion and NO ABLATIVES!!! (these are trailerable SMALL boats-it's not like cleaning an aircraft carrier). Please just think about it the next time you choose. Thank You for your time and patience.
I may be alone, but I look forward to GO's rants (hope you still have her phone number!) I suspect most folks putting on ablatives got the idea from reading the West Marine catalog, which shows that hard bottom paints lose effectiveness when out of the water. They say ablative's don't. And are "self scrubbing". They might be on a powerboat, but sailboats don't get up enough speed. I know on our fresh water lake, the enemy is algae. Leave the boat in the water for a month and she will grow a beard faster than me. When they pull some of the bigger boats after being in the water a year or so, no hard growth, but there may be an inch or more of algae slime being drug around. Bottom paint....even with slime blockers.....doesn't seem to help all that much. For these fresh water boats, no paint at all is probably the best solution. Just pull and powerwash or scrub her clean.