Hull Cleaning, Dock & Seawall Divers in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, FL

The whole town sits on a barrier island separated from the mainland by the Intracoastal, with a single drawbridge at Commercial Boulevard. Bel Air, about a mile north of the town center, has waterfront streets with no-fixed-bridge ocean access, and Terra Mar Island, just east of the Intracoastal, is a man-made island bordered by canals; both came into the town with the 2001 annexation. Town Hall is in ZIP 33308 and the Terra Mar area is 33062.

There is no marina and no public ramp inside the town, which is why every Lauderdale-By-The-Sea boat we clean is behind a house. The diver works from the dock and leaves; you don't need to be home. Anglin's Fishing Pier at the east end of Commercial Boulevard is the town's landmark on the ocean side, and there is no diving within 300 feet of it, which is fine, because our diving is all in the canals.

Bel Air and Terra Mar canals are salt water off the Intracoastal, and along the Broward Intracoastal the manatee rule keeps boats slow within 50 feet of shore. A boat that sits in a canal between runs out Hillsboro Inlet (the town is in the Hillsboro Inlet District) grows an algae band at the waterline and hard barnacles on the props and shafts, where bottom paint can't stick. Thirty days is the longest we let a canal boat go, and a hull without bottom paint gets cleaned every two weeks.

Canal docks in Bel Air and on Terra Mar Island stand on pilings that oysters work on all year; we clean them without pickaxes or chisels and inspect them while they are bare. Broward County's seawall standard calls for tidal flood barriers of at least 5.0 feet NAVD88, and we have not found a town-specific ordinance beyond it. A seawall inspection here is $250 for a home and $350 for a multi-family property, cleaned first, with the lender-required documentation and a free in-person quote for any crack repair.

Send the form or call 561-666-3716 with the boat's length, the canal (Bel Air or Terra Mar Island), and whether the hull is painted; for a dock or seawall a photo from the dock helps. Nobody needs to be home; if the dock is behind a gate, the divers call ahead and text you just before the visit.