Pressure washing reveals pitting

As soon as the fenders had been removed Dean got on with pressure washing Jubilee's hull.

While the boat was resting on the timber baulks and the lifting straps relaxed, Dean was able to wash off the muck from behind the straps.

Then the boat was lifted again and positioned over the narrow channel. The pressure washing continued, with the gunk returning to the water from whence it came without creating too much mess on the concrete pad.

I suppose it would be possible to wash the hull with a scrubbing brush, but this is a lot easier if a bit noisy.

We had a convenient seat from which to gongoozle in the sunshine.

With the algae gone, along with some of the old blacking, no doubt, it was easy to see where the hull had pitted. Corrosion has eaten away at the steel leaving a bright, slightly hollow area. Actually, lots of bright, slightly hollow areas. Better get it covered up with fresh blacking as soon as possible!

Although I had asked for just the hull sides to be done, Dean washed off a test area of the baseplate so we could see what condition that was in. The photo also shows just how rusty the area around the waterline had become. Perhaps I should have rust-treated this before the blacking went on. Oh well - too late now.

There was enough pitting there for me to ask for the baseplate to be washed and blacked too. This would add to the cost, but as Debdale Wharf is one of the few places to offer such a service I thought it best not to skimp on an important bit of maintenance. Dean reckoned that treating the baseplate every four years would be enough - I intend to black the rest every two years.

I'm hoping that the pitting was caused by a few years of being connected to a shoreline with no galvanic isolation (before we bought the boat). One of the first presents I bought for Jubilee was a proper isolation transformer for when Ally and Ben were marina-dwellers.

Next post: applying the blacking.