CLEAN BOTTOM

Whether the boat is a fishing lugger, a long-ended yacht or a classy 1930s motor cruiser, she needs a clean bottom. Without one, any effort at maintaining performance is in vain. Most of us get by with a session on the hard at the beginning of the season, perhaps followed by a scrub later on before the summer cruise or the regatta. We know our local yards and have learned who to trust. We’ve had plenty of time for surveying scrubbing grids at low water to make sure no abandoned shopping trolleys are lurking to trash our keels. One way and another, most of us are well organised. Further afield, the experience can be more challenging, and hauling out in distant parts has furnished me with one or two experiences I’d rather forget.

The first was more