Barnacles on shaft

[wchevron]

when motoring the last few weeks of the season, the motor, shaft, boat had a vibration when motoring about 2 knots and above. below 2 knots the vibration was gone. i don't have a tach so i don't know what rpm i'm running at. at first i thought it may be the shaft got bent or maybe the cutless bearing got loose.
just hauled the boat on friday and noticed a good amount of barnacles on the shaft & propeller. could this have caused the vibration. i checked the shaft & there doesn't seem to be much if any play.

[Idiens]

My guess is that it could, since the barnacles can cause an asymmetric mass and force on the drive chain.

[trantor12020]

Almost certain barnacles caused the vibration. I've had similar problem. After shaft and prop is cleaned, my engine can even reach max rated rpm.

[Idiens]

When I first had my boat, I was told it was no use painting antifouling onto the shaft and propeller as is would simply be spun off. I heard tales of lanolin and all sorts of solutions. After the first season with my new expensive MaxProp coming out covered in barnacles, I had it cleaned and burnished and tried lanolin. The next year, I just cleaned off the barnacles and antifouled it. Antifouling paint may not stick on a new burnished propeller blade but it sure sticks on the residue left by barnacles. Since then the antifouling sticks and the barnacles don't.

I read somewhere that scientists are trying to isolate and manufacture barnacle glue, apparently its the strongest known adhesive. It sets underwater too.

[maccauley123]

I read about and have sprayed my prop and shaft with Zinc Coat from Petit I think. It is supposed to work well from what I read but I have not splashed my boat with it yet so can't report.

[timebandit]

I wonder if the barnacles get dizzy??

Originally Posted by wchevron

when motoring the last few weeks of the season, the motor, shaft, boat had a vibration when motoring about 2 knots and above. below 2 knots the vibration was gone. i don't have a tach so i don't know what rpm i'm running at. at first i thought it may be the shaft got bent or maybe the cutless bearing got loose.
just hauled the boat on friday and noticed a good amount of barnacles on the shaft & propeller. could this have caused the vibration. i checked the shaft & there doesn't seem to be much if any play.

[Idiens]

Originally Posted by timebandit

I wonder if the barnacles get dizzy??

Maybe they see the prop as a funfair ride.

[wchevron]

looking at it friday, i was thinking of maybe painted them next spring before splashing. i think i'm going to give it a try.

[Giulietta]

Wchevron,

I didn't use to paint the prop.

The method I use is a good considerable amount of vaseline applied every time the boats goes in the water.

The vaseline keeps the barnacles out, as it coats the saildrive with a thin greasy layer..I have up to 6 months barnacle free.

This year, we decided to paint the prop also with saildrive paint (no metals in the paint to avoid dissimilar metals corrosion), and applied vaseline.

Boat's coming out in 1 month for hull washing and cleaning..I will let you know. But after 3 months in the water, I dove and inspected and there were only 2 or 3 barnacles on it..

The vaseline also helps the ones that make it and attach come off easier without bringing the paint with them...that was the original idea with the vaseline, so they don't bring paint with them when pressure washing.

Prop before painting bellow.




Prop with painting AND vaseline bellow.

[bubb2]

What's that duck doing under Giu's boat!!!!!!!