Our Boat Kept Getting Slower. This Was Why. (24)
15 June 2026 · 12 min · 37K views
Diver inspects boat hull underwater in clear blue sea
What this video covers
Hull fouling slowed the boat Ewa to the point that a full bottom clean became unavoidable after more than a month without scrubbing and nearly four years since the last haulout and antifouling repaint.0:40 The original paint scheme — white hard antifouling as a base coat, then multiple layers of black antifouling applied in Guatemala — was meant to signal repainting time when white showed through, but the outer layer sloughing off unevenly made the hull look ragged instead.0:46 Barnacles covered the entire bottom and required a metal scraper almost everywhere; a brush handled soft growth (grass and algae) but only sharpened the barnacles.1:21 The job was split across two sessions because fatigue and rising wind prevented finishing the starboard side after the port side was done.8:44 A serious safety incident occurred during the first session: the Blue Nomad surface-supply hookah's compressor drifted near the running generator's exhaust, feeding carbon monoxide through the air line; the diver felt faint, banged on the hull for help, and was pulled aboard.4:29 The boat now has a standing rule against running the generator during bottom cleaning.5:07 3D-printed earplugs kept sea lice out of the diver's ears on the second dive.11:39 The starboard side had noticeably fewer barnacles than the port side, cause unknown.10:37 Carbon monoxide poisoning is a real risk when using a hookah compressor near a running generator.
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