Trojan Boat Forum

RossJo mentioned cleaning his boat's bottom monthly in an earlier post. I just wanted to tell everybody that I made a boat bunker and, after a year in the water, I have no barnacles and the thing works great.

If I knew how to post pictures on here I'd do it. I just bought a used billboard on Ebay ($40) and put a 2" PVC frame around it($25). I hinged the thing in the middle so it would go under the props better...but in retrospect that wasn't even necessary. I just slide the bunker under my boat and there's no water flow underneath to feed barnacles. With the sun beating on it, the water gets too hot for most things and becomes clear as a swimming pool. When you want to take the boat out, you just slide it back from the props with your boat hook (about 1 minute) and back the boat off of it.

If you want to see pics send me an email and I'll replay:
tcclark@comcast.net

Even better, someone could tell me how to post pictures on this contraption!

Tony in Fort Myers, FL

Tone,

Wow! What a GREAT idea - I'd love some pix!

Was the billboard plastic (PVC or vinly) or wat?

Did you use 2", 3" or 4" PVC for flotation?

Great innovation - where did you come up with this?

I'm eMailing you right now for pix!

http://www.boatbunkers.com.au/ has a product to do this - looks nice, but I agree that it would fairly straight forward to do this yourself as Tony has done.

What about boat soap run off [from pathologically cleaning your boat every time you see it]?

GREAT idea- This could be my answer to the Chicago f30 im about to dunk in the Gulf of Mexico-After seeing barnacle buildup and its effect on performance(and self esteem) I was determined to use ablative before the end of the river. Thanks for the info!

Hey gang,
I see the picture of that blow-up deal. That's a nice design...kinda pricey but it's only money.

I used PVC for floatation around mine because I figured the barnacles and stuff in my nasty, saltwater canal would break that floatation ring and I'd be out $4,000. I could see myself fishing off the dock and hooking the thing with a big snook lure too.

I'll help anyone make one if they want...just gimme' an email and I call. About soap and stuff: The second best thing about the bunker is that when the bilge pump blows out some crud water or soap drips down the boat or ya spill a little gas, it sits in that bunker and biodegrades. The skanky water in the bunker is harmless...but a few days of brewing in the sun makes the contaminates more friendly by the time they leak out. I think it's more enviro-whackily friendly that bottom paint anyway.

Ross, if you can figure how to post those pics I'd be grateful. I'm told I'm part of the computer generation...but html is a mystery.