Keeping leg clean in saltwater

[girlboatie]

Ok, I know some of you old salts will laugh.

But. Is there a way to keep the leg part of an I/O from getting that green mucky sea hag stuff on it? We get it on the trim tabs/hydralics, depth sounder, speedo, etc. I don't know how anything can work properly with that junk hanging on it.

I had heard of a product called Max Wax that is supposed to work.

We keep our boat in the sea for about 4 months each year and believe me, it's encrusted & hairy after all that time and is quite a chore to clean it up every Fall.

girlboatie

 

[dan t.]

Re: Keeping leg clean in saltwater

i keep my boat in saltwater in prince rupert bc for 4 to 6 months a year,i have had good luck with trilux II. do not use a copper base antifouling on aluminum. as for a wax based product i suspect it is good for fresh water only

 

[LORDY611]

Re: Keeping leg clean in saltwater

My boat is in a lake in Maine for 2 weeks each summer. The water is clean enough to drink in a pinch, and the slime that grows on the bottom in a week is surprising. I wipe it off with a sponge while swimming when I notice it growing. If you cant do that, you may want to pull it out and scrub it every so often. The job will be much easier than if left til the fall.

 

[girlboatie]

Re: Keeping leg clean in saltwater

i keep my boat in saltwater in prince rupert bc for 4 to 6 months a year,i have had good luck with trilux II. do not use a copper base antifouling on aluminum. as for a wax based product i suspect it is good for fresh water only

Hi dan t,

You're farther north than I am. I'm on the Sunshine Coast in BC. We've visited Prince Rupert - nice place!

You sound like you keep your boat in the water about as long as we do. The barnacles are pretty tough to scrape off the leg after so long as well as that sea grass. We'll try to find the Trilux II, if it works for you it should work for us.

LORDY611, you're lucky you have your boat in fresh water. We may put ours in a nearby lake next year rather than ocean where it is now. The slime isn't so much of a problem in salt water. It's the barnacles and sea grass that cling to the leg, trim tabs, etc. We can't pull the boat out every so often because it's a long steep launch, and we have to pay someone to pull it out for us because we don't want to put our truck in salt water. It's just too much of a hassle for us. So, we'll try the Trilux this Fall. Also, we learned that the job is a little easier if you get to the stuff ASAP rather than wait for the barnacles to get like cement but the leg will never look like new, I'm afraid. Right now, the green 'hair' on it is longer than MY hair. Ah, the joys of owning a boat, eh?

girlboatie