Barnacle removal?

[maxum247]

Boat set in brackish water for three or so years and is full of barnacle's, anyone know of a safe non toxic product to remove the spats on my fiberglass boat without damaging the gelcoat?
There are hundreds of them some are small 1/4" in diameter all the way up to 5/8 of an inch in diameter, mostly larger.
Thought about sanding but I beleive that would leave holes and valleys all over the gelcoat.
Tryed scraping with a razor blade, works sort of well but scratches and cuts into the gelcoat if not careful. How do you spell barnacle anyway?

What to do?

max!

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Barnacle removal?

you spelled it correctly. you may as well turn that boat over. and block it up. pressure washing immediately after trailering would have helped. but scraping and sanding, then refinishing the bottom is the solution. sorry no better news.

 

[maxum247]

Re: Barnacle removal?

Thanks TD! That's what I was afraid of.

 

[capt pete3]

Re: Barnacle removal?

I have an aluminum pontoon boat that was covered with Barnacles. After trying some other methods without much sucess I discovered "this trick".
WD-40--- right! the boat had been out of the water about 10 days when I decided to try to loosen the foot left by scraping. I sprayed the hulls with WD-40 using a speay bottle from the Dollor store and bulk WD-40 (gallon).
after one application the results were promising. I let sit a day and sprayed it again. Better! after the third application the barnacles snapped off clean with a dull putty knife. a pressure washer also works well. this should work on fiberglass also without damaging the Gel-coat.

Good luck.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Barnacle removal?

Please not necessary to re-open old posts to answer questions.