Boat Bottom Cleaning in Key Biscayne, FL

Boats at the yacht club and at Crandon Park Marina sit in open bay water that swaps with the ocean through Bear Cut on every tide. That is the fastest-growing water in the village: props, shafts and rudders pick up hard barnacles because paint can't stick to metal, and the diver spends most of the visit on the running gear. Cavitation cleaning is safe on Propspeed, so coated props are no problem.

Inside Hurricane Harbor and the Pines Canal there is no wake at all, so a boat behind a Mashta Island house grows a soft algae band at the waterline and slime across the hull. The diver removes it with soft brushes and cavitation, checks each zinc and sends the report and photos. Boats that spend weekends anchored at No Name Harbor and the week at a village dock are on the same schedule.

The Rickenbacker Causeway, opened in 1947, is the only road onto the island, and it has a motorboat exclusion zone under it; Crandon Park has an ocean-side motorboat and personal-watercraft exclusion zone as well. Between those, the village's boats run out through Bear Cut or south past the lighthouse, and the seagrass beds west of Virginia Key where the manatees gather are right on the way. Crandon Park Marina's ramp, with 212 trailer spaces, handles the day boats; the yacht club's roughly 100 slips for boats up to about 60 feet and the private docks on Hurricane Harbor hold the ones that stay in.

Village boats that anchor at No Name Harbor and come home to Hurricane Harbor spend their whole lives in salt water, so the running gear is always the first thing to go, and Crandon Park Marina boats in wet slips see the same. The diver photographs props and shafts before and after so the owner can see it, and swaps a zinc the moment it reads 50%.

Key Biscayne boats we clean sit on Biscayne Bay and in Hurricane Harbor. Key Biscayne Yacht Club and Crandon Park Marina: regular stops. Private docks on Mashta Island (ZIP code 33149) get the same 30-day visit.

A written dive report and photos come with every cleaning.

• Zinc percentage per anode; replacement at 50%.
• Bottom paint condition, so the next haul-out is planned, not guessed.
• Photos of the hull and running gear.
• Anything the diver spotted: clogged thru-hulls, damage, loose gear.

How long it takes and how often. 45 minutes to 4 hours per cleaning, depending on growth and boat length. Every 30 days for a boat that stays in the water; every two weeks in nutrient-rich spots or for a hull without bottom paint.

Full boat bottom cleaning guide