A hull cleaning in Norfolk, the old-timer who changed my approach

Tbh, I was sweating through a hull cleaning on a fishing trawler in Norfolk last month, and this retired navy diver comes up to the dock. He just watched me for a bit, then said, "You're fighting the current, kid, not the growth." He showed me how to angle my jet nozzle with the tide instead of against it, and it cut my bottom time by almost 20 minutes. That one tip saved me a ton of air and made the whole job smoother. Has anyone else had a stranger spot something obvious you'd been missing for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

ellis.mia23d ago

Ugh, hard disagree on that one! I've done hulls in Norfolk for years and fighting the current is the ONLY way to get deep enough into the fouling, especially around the propeller shaft. Working with the tide just pushes you sideways and leaves a mess behind for the next guy to fix.

hugoh5522d ago

Whoa, wait, hold on. @ellis.mia you're telling me you want to fight a solid tide around a prop shaft? That sounds like a nightmare, honestly. I mean, maybe it's just me, but the whole reason I tried the old guy's trick was because I was getting slammed into the hull every other minute and burning through my tank like crazy. I get that you need pressure to blast the crap off, but I found angling it with the flow actually gave me more control, not less, once I got the hang of it. Idk, maybe the Norfolk currents hit different where you're working, but the thought of doing that for years makes my back hurt just reading it.