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Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 7:11 am
by BobL
I keep my boat in the water (no lift) from March-October. This time of year, the scum/algae starts to build-up and in the past, I just left it alone and let it flake off over the winter when I pulled it out. This build-up obviously affects performance (speed and fuel consumption) so since I have a new toon this year (purchased the new Southbay in March) I have decided to try to clean them while in the water. I am going to have to float and clean as we dont have anywhere to beach it and I really dont want to drag my trailer up to my camp and pull it out of the water.

So to make a long story short, any of you have advice on what to use? Plastic putty knife? Scrub brush? I dont think I should get agressive with brillo/steel wool pad so any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 8:18 am
by jimrs
A big cat with a long tounge. Or a plastic scrapper pad.

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 9:20 am
by jrolin1
My toon lives in the water 365. I use a plastic putty knife and then a brush. The brush helps get the areas along the seams and knocks the rest off that the knife left. I use a few noodles for floatation.

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 9:34 am
by lakerunner696
I recommend a short handled stiff brush, then scotchbrite pads. We don't keep in slip but still get a scum line. This is what we use very successfully.

PS tie a cord to handle in case it slips from grip

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 9:53 am
by badmoonrising
If the build up is bad enough to affect performance, best way to prevent 99 percent of the build up is to use anti-fouling paint. Some people think anti-fouling is only for saltwater boats, that's a myth. The upper Chesapeake has low salinity in the spring and gets saltier during the summer, so we have issues with freshwater algae, saltwater (red) algae and then late summer, barnacles.

If it's not that bad, scrub every other week.

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 6:13 pm
by Bamaman
The best way to minimize toon scum is to take 10 minutes at the end of every boating day, and scrub the bathtub ring with a Scotchbrite pad.

You can use steel wool and abrasives, but they'll scratch the boat. Most serious cleaning products are muriatic acid based.

Now that you're behind the eight ball, I'd still stick with the Scotchbrite pad, a scrub brush and elbow grease. And, don't try to float around doing the job. Find some place you can get your feet on the ground (underwater), and it'll 1/3 as much work.

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 7:40 am
by BobL
Many thanks for the suggestions. I figure this is about a 7 beer job but work on the water is better than "fun" at the house.

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:45 pm
by SoapPeddler
If you want to take some of the drudgery out of the job you could consider a Motor Scrubber. Its a battery powered, 8" scrubber. The scrub head is completely submersible.

I use one for other cleaning tasks.

http://www.motorscrubbers.com/

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:54 pm
by Ron Burgundy
Are there any marina's nearby? I have one near me that recommends powerwashing your toons. I haven't tried it yet, but they say if you do it every 3-4 months it will keep them pretty clean. You will still need to do some light scrubbing in between trips.

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:40 pm
by toakley1
I use a scrubber that works basically like a scotchbrite pad with a handle on it.

Similar to this:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_66469-1738-206_ ... facetInfo=

I keep a couple of these on the boat all the time. They're cheap and work pretty well. Ditto what was said above about doing your scrubbing in shallow water vs floating around.

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 11:04 am
by thebiminibuddy
I agree with lakerunner696 :nana Simple and efficient.

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:41 pm
by playcat
I keep my barge in almost year round, and i use toakley's setup about every other month

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 6:22 am
by BobL
Thanks for the additional suggestions!

No marina nearby so this is going to be a floating job as I dont care to deal with my trailer. Some of you guys are mentioning "scum line" (which I also have) but this is the growth underneath the tubes. In Louisiana, the algae in the water grows faster than the grass in your yard. Then again, we can comfortably boat well into October and crank it up again in March so I can deal with the trade-off. If I had some of the yankee blood found on this forum running in my veins, I could easily boat year-round.

Will let you know how my project turns out.

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:15 am
by BobL
Here's an update on my log cleaning project. Tried the two types of scrub brushes suggested and after a few minutes, I then tried this little gadget and it worked great:

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1260 ... 3992211701

Finished the job in less than an hour. The pot scrubber took off the growth in no time with very little elbow grease needed (much less work than scrubbing). Being anal, I did followup with a quick scrub.

When I had my Bentley (with 50hp), I never cleaned the toons (just let the growth flake off when I pulled her out of the water each winter). You can sure see the difference with a 115hp pushing clean toons vs. a 50hp pushing clean toons. I didnt GPS the speed difference but I would be willing to bet that the growth effected performance by 25-30% (possibly more).

Re: Cleaning Toons in Water

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:44 am
by Ron Burgundy
Good to hear about the improved performance. Have you ever considered antifouling paint?