A free handbook · Jarrett Maryon
Most of what you love about your boat happens above the water. There is another boat below the waterline, and it is working or fouling, protected or corroding, every day she sits in the slip. This handbook is an honest, working education in that half — ten chapters, each ending with a checklist you can come back to season after season.
It is written from field experience in Pinellas County waters: a lifetime on the water and over a decade underwater, on sailboats and center consoles, weekend runabouts and liveaboard cruisers. Not a sales pitch and not a scare campaign. You do not need to become a diver. You need to know what your diver sees — enough to ask the right questions, catch the early signs, and make decisions ahead of time instead of after the fact.
Download the full handbook · free PDF No email required. 34 pages.
Contents
The submerged half is a system, and it is always doing something. Why problems down there grow quietly, and how picturing them turns the invisible half into something you can manage.
Biofilm within hours, soft algae within weeks, then hard calcareous growth that bonds to your paint. Every stage is easier to handle than the one after it — and warm Gulf water runs that clock in weeks rather than seasons. Barnacle growth season in Tampa Bay.
How biocide release actually works, the real difference between ablative and hard modified-epoxy paints, and the point that trips owners up: a hull can be fully painted and still be out of protection. Soft versus hard antifouling paint in Florida.
The osmotic mechanism behind gelcoat blistering, kept in proportion: most blisters are cosmetic. What matters is depth and trend, not any single bump.
Put two different metals in seawater and you have built a battery. Why anodes are meant to disappear, how to pick zinc, aluminum, or magnesium for your water, and why unusually fast anode loss is a signal rather than a restocking problem. Estimate your anode service life.
A propeller is a precision airfoil. Fouling there costs out of all proportion to its size — and growth around a strut or cutless bearing does not just slow you down, it grinds. Running gear service.
Keeping raw-water intakes clear so the engine breathes, and exercising seacocks so they still close when you need them. A seacock you cannot close is just a hole with a handle.
Drag is where it all comes from. What fouling costs in fuel, speed, range, engine life, and survey value — with the numbers presented as the shape of the problem rather than a promise. Clean hull fuel savings.
Water temperature, storage type, and use set your interval. Monthly is the starting point for a wet-slip boat in Gulf water; a lift or trailer boat fouls dramatically slower. Then let the boat calibrate the schedule. Hull cleaning frequency in Florida.
What a complete hull service actually covers, why reporting is the thing that separates a professional from a scrubber, what to ask before you hire, and the red flags worth walking away from. What an underwater inspection includes.
About the author
Jarrett Maryon is the founder of Misting Monsoon Diving, a professional hull cleaning and marine diving service based in Pinellas County, Florida. He works the waters of Tampa Bay, the beaches, and the surrounding Gulf, keeping boats clean, protected, and running their best below the surface.
Misting Monsoon provides scheduled hull cleaning, running-gear and anode service, through-hull and seacock inspection, and detailed reporting — so owners always know the condition of the half of their boat they cannot see. The company also runs free underwater debris removal for community beach cleanups across Pinellas County through a partnership with the PADI AWARE Foundation.
This handbook reflects what Jarrett sees underwater every working day. It is offered in the same spirit as the work itself: to help boat owners understand, protect, and get the most out of their vessels.
In the press
Keep it on the boat. Come back to the checklists whenever you need them — that is what they are for.
This handbook is offered as practical education for boat owners. It reflects field experience and general marine-maintenance principles; it is not a substitute for a qualified surveyor, mechanic, or marine electrician on questions specific to your vessel.