Monthly Bottom Cleaning
A diver in the water every month, taking the growth off the hull, running gear, and prop before it gets a grip. It is the cheapest maintenance on the boat and the one that quietly makes everything else last longer.
In these harbors a clean hull goes to a fouled one in about four weeks over summer. Growth costs you speed and range, and on an electric boat that comes straight out of your evening. The worse problem is what happens if you leave it: once barnacles get a real grip, taking them off takes the antifouling with them, and a $95 dive turns into a bottom job a year early.
What's included
- Full hull scrub in the water, on a fixed monthly schedule
- Shaft, strut, rudder, and prop cleaned and the prop polished
- Zinc anodes inspected every visit and replaced at 50% wear
- Through-hulls, intakes, and transducers cleared
- Rudder and shaft checked for play or vibration
- A short written report after every dive
- A free return dive if growth comes back inside the cycle
- Anything we find — a soft spot, a weeping seal, a nicked prop — flagged straight away
How often is often enough?
Monthly
What we recommend, and what almost every boat here should be on. May through October matters most — warm water is when everything happens — but skipping winter entirely just means a harder scrub in spring.
Every six weeks
Workable through winter, or for a boat on hard modified epoxy that gets used often enough to keep itself reasonably clean.
Quarterly
We'll do it, but be aware what you're choosing. Three months of growth needs aggressive scrubbing to remove, and aggressive scrubbing is what shortens the life of your bottom paint. It usually costs more over a few years, not less.
A soft touch on the paint
Ablative paint is designed to give up a thin layer as it's cleaned — that's how it stays fresh. Scrub it too hard, or too often with the wrong pad, and you are literally scrubbing money off the hull. Our divers start with the softest pad that will do the job and step up only where they have to. That discipline is the single biggest reason our customers get the full life out of a bottom job.
Zincs get checked every single dive
Anodes are the cheapest insurance on a boat. Replacing a $30 zinc on schedule is what stops galvanic corrosion from eating a $900 prop or, worse, the shaft. They're inspected on every visit and swapped at about half worn — we don't wait for you to ask.
It makes your bottom paint last
A boat on a monthly clean typically gets twenty to twenty-four months out of a bottom job. A boat that's never cleaned often needs one at twelve. Cleaning is not an alternative to bottom painting — it's what makes bottom painting worth what you paid for it.
Selling the boat? A clean bottom and a documented dive history is one of the easiest things to put in front of a buyer. Ask us and we'll pull your full report history.
Typical pricing
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Duffy 16–18, monthly plan | $75 / month |
| Duffy 21–22, monthly plan | $95 / month |
| Other boats to 30′, monthly plan | $4.50 / ft · $110 min |
| One-off clean, no plan | $135–195 |
| Pre-haul or pre-survey clean | $145 |
| Zinc replacement | At cost + $25 fitting |
| Prop polish, on a plan | Included |
Monthly plans are billed monthly with no contract and no cancellation fee — stop any time. One-off cleans cost more per visit because the growth is always worse when nobody has been down for a while.
How it works
Four steps, no surprises on the invoice
Survey
The first dive includes a full hull condition report with photos, so we both know exactly what the starting point was.
Schedule
You go onto the fixed monthly rotation for your harbor. No calls to book, nothing to remember, no chasing us.
Dive
Hull, running gear, prop, and zincs, every visit. Nobody needs to be aboard and the boat doesn't move.
Report
A short written report lands after every dive, with anything worth knowing about flagged while it's still small.
Common questions
Bottom Cleaning, answered
Do I need to be there?
No, and the boat doesn't need to move. We work from the water, so you'll usually only know we came by the report that arrives afterwards.
What if the water's too murky to see?
Most of this work is done by feel rather than by sight, so poor visibility rarely stops a dive. On the rare day conditions genuinely aren't safe, we reschedule and you're not charged.
Will scrubbing damage my bottom paint?
Not the way we do it. Softest pad that will do the job, stepping up only where the growth demands it. Heavy-handed cleaning is the most common way boats lose a year off their bottom paint.
Can you clean a hull with no antifouling on it?
Yes, and it'll need it at least monthly. We'll also tell you honestly when you've reached the point where painting it is cheaper than cleaning it.
Which harbors do you cover?
All of them in our service area — Huntington Harbour, Huntington Beach, Newport, Balboa, Seal Beach, Sunset Beach, Alamitos Bay, Long Beach, Naples Island, and Dana Point.
Is there a contract?
No. It's month to month. We'd rather keep you because the boat stays clean than because you signed something.
Ready when you are
Tell us your boat and your harbor, and we'll come back with a free written estimate — usually within one business day.