After our wonderful time with friends John & Genna last week and our chance to get out on anchor again, it was back to boat work this week. Our annual contract at Setur Marinas includes a haul out and so we decided to take advantage of that to see how everything under the waterline has fared over the past year in the water. Spoiler alert; everything below the WL was in great shape and we were eXtremely happy with the silicone based foul release bottom paint we decided to use. Here are the details of this very busy past week.
Haul Out
First thing Monday morning we moved Möbius over to the Travel Lift bay here at Finike Marina.
The slings dropped down into the water in front of the Bow as the Travel lift moved back.
And up out of the water we came. 
Looking pretty good after 11 months in the water with almost no movement. The typical “sea grass” and green slime up around the Boot Stripe and a bit of growth on the bottom paint itself.
Prop is also looking pretty clean with just a bit of growth around the base of the blades at the hub. This area would get the least amount of self cleaning turbulence when the prop is spinning so makes sense that we might see some growth here.
We designed the Rub Rails with this situation in mind and the underside makes a strong solid pocket for the support poles to lock into.
Some blocks under the keel bar running the length of the boat and the Travel Lift was good to go and we could get to work cleaning up the bottom and inspecting everything under the waterline
This was a good indicator of how easy it was going to be to clean the bottom paint. Just the contact with the web straps on the Travel Lift was enough to completely brush off all the growth.
Another good sign that a small patch of harder growth on the bottom of the Keel Bar came off in my fingers.
Each of the zinc anodes also had a bit of harder growth on them but this too came off very easily with a lift of my fingernail or a plastic spreader.
I got out a bucket of water and a sponge and after a few swipes with the sponge the growth came off and the silicone bottom paint was as clean and shiny as new.
I just kept going with the sponge and this is what it looked like in less than 30 minutes.
Christine tackled the prop and rudder with similar fast results. It was a very warm sunny day and the dirty water from sponging would evaporate quite quickly and leave this kind of residue behind but this was easy to rinse off with a spray nozzle on the water hose.
Bow thruster tunnel and plastic blades also cleaned up very quickly which was another very pleasant result for us compared to any of our previous boats
By the end of the day we had finished the Starboard side and would get back to the Port side in the morning.
And that was it! Two days of work and we had a super clean and slick bottom and some VERY big smiles on our faces seeing how easy it was going to be to keep the bottom of Möbius’ hull clean, smooth and slippery.
For other boat owners who are interested in more details on this fabulous bottom paint we used you can read all the details and see how it was applied in THIS previous post from last year.
This type of bottom paint is referred to as “Foul Release” rather than Anti Foul and it is basically a coating of silicone that is sprayed over typical good quality epoxy primer and base coats using an airless sprayer. It is basically the same as what some of you might know as “Prop Speed” that is commonly used to keep propellers clean.
We chose International’s version called InterSleek 1100SR and as you can see this was one of the best choices we made. Having cleaned a LOT of hulls in our many years of sailing this silicone based foul release paint is the best we have ever seen by a very large margin. I simply don’t know or understand why this type of bottom paint is so unknown in the recreational boat market but it is very commonly used by military, cargo and super yachts so is not hard to find if you ask. Given our experience after about 14 months of use, we could not imagine using anything else in the future and can give this our highest recommendation to other boaters to consider. it has an estimated life of 5-7 years so we will continue to report on how this paint performs over the next few years but at this point we are unbelievably happy with our choice and how well it meets our low maintenance priority.
Two days later we were back in the water and back to our dock to finish up other remaining boat jobs so we can finally cut the dock lines and head out to sea.
Fixing the TreadMaster
One of those jobs was redoing the TreadMaster that covers all our decks. The epoxy that had been used to glue the TreadMaster to the aluminium deck surfaces had not stuck and most of the corners were starting to lift and become both a trip hazard and unsightly. Naval sent up a crew of guys who carefully separated each panel of TreadMaster from the deck, sanded the AL deck surfaces clean, primed it and put down a layer of Bostic primer and then used Bostik Simson MSR adhesive to reattach each panel.
They got about 70% of the decks done and will be back again Monday morning to finish the rest and we will have nice solid non skid decks again.
Rigging the Davit and Tender
Once back at the dock I got busy installing all the rigging for the Davit Arch that will allow us to launch and retrieve our Tender Mobli.
I’ve got a long and successful experience on previous boats with Garhauer rigging hardware so went with them again. These are the triple blocks that will lift Mobli Up/Down inside the Davit Arch.
Like this.
From the top triple block the Dyneema line goes through a turning block on the inside corner of the Arch.
And then down to a manual Lewmar 40 winch.
A Dyneema bridle connects to the bottom triple block and then extends down to …..
…… one of these welded in eyes in each corner of the hull. Makes it very easy to clip the bridle on/off the Tender.
Same setup for the bridle at the Bow.
This rigging is what we will use to lift the Tender Up/Down inside the arch to raise it up off the Aft Deck and then down into the water on the side when launching. Retrieval is the reverse sequence.
The second rigging is to allow the Arch to rotate off to the Port side so that the Tender moves off the Aft Deck and out to clear the sides so Mobli can be lowered down into the water. Here I have installed the bridal for this that you can see in the middle of the Arch.
From the top of the Arch, the line runs over to a turning block on the Stbd side then …
… back up to another turning block on the bridle, back down through one more turning block that takes the line over to the Lewmar 65 electric winch.
Belaying the line out allows the Arch to rotate out and over the Port side. 
Like this except the Tender would be hanging from those two Up/Down lines you saw earlier.
Next time we are out at anchor and have enough room beside us, we’ll do our first launch of Mobli and see who the whole system works. A work in progress I’m sure and as with many of our systems we will use it for some months to learn how it works and how we can improve it. We may want to modify this to be all electric perhaps or even consider going with a hydraulic crane but for now this simple manual setup should work well we hope.
Baris and Dincer at Naval Yachts sent up this lovely surprise gift with the TreadMaster crew this week. Four lovely hand painted tiles of famous Turkish boats of the past and a beautiful hand made Turkish ”evil eye” to help keep us, Mobli and Möbius safe. Now we are trying to decide on the best place to showcase this much appreciated gift. Thanks Naval!
And that wraps up our busy week over here as the days get warmer and warmer and we already feel summer weather coming our way. Thanks for tuning in again this week, be sure to add your comments and questions in the “Join the Discussion” box below and hope you’ll be back again to join us for next week’s adventures.
-Wayne
Just curious why you did not use a pressure washer after haul-out? Will you use one next time? Sorry to see the Treadmaster lifting off at the corners.
I do have a pressure washer onboard and was going to use it but got started with the sponge and it worked so well I just kept going. Will probably go with the pressure washer the next time we haul out and that likely will be a bit faster. However, we hope not to need to haul out for several years and most of the time we will just give the hull a “sponge bath” while she is in the water and using our Hookah setup.
My best guess with the epoxy and Treadmaster was that they waited too long after sanding before putting down the epoxy and so the layer of aluminium oxide had already formed and the epoxy didn’t stick. Always a challenge getting paint of any kind to stick to AL. They have now used Bostic adhesive so we’ll see how that works over the coming years.
The supports under the rub rail (instead of the more traditional supports against the hull) are very neat.
Yes, they work great. We sometimes have to convince the hard stand crew to do it this way as they have such an ingrained habit of putting jack stands or timber much lower down. We now just show them pictures and they get it right away and then just need to find somewhat longer timbers. Once they’ve done it they see how much easier it is for them and better for working on the hull with no obstructions. Also much better bracing for side forces if the wind were to ever get up to speed. So very happy with this setup and can recommend it highly to others.
It’s such a pleasure not having to read about the travails of Mr. G.
On to smaller and better things!
Well you know boats Matt, it is always something that isn’t working properly be it large or small. Right now I’m trying to solve a mystery fluid that is appearing in our gutters in once spot and a ground on one of the AC terminals on our external rectifiers. Both remain in that “doesn’t make sense” category right now but I just continue to test and gather more evidence and just as with Mr. Gee will get to the bottom eventually. Just not much fun in the process and takes time away from the many other and more positive projects I’d like to be working on. Livin’ the dream right?!!