Big Alloy Barge

[Jay Perrotta]

http://www.latitudemarine.com/building.html

Kinda cool, eh?

[Chaps]

That is cool, and the company is located in the same town as my boats namesake, La Conner, WA

Speaking of aluminum barges, I hope they bottom painted that thing before they launched. I just finished blasting a 48 foot alloy oyster barge that was in the water for 7 years and had never been painted. The company just kept sending divers underneath to knock off what they could with scrapers. When they hauled it they pressure washed the soft growth off (an estimated 4000 lbs of tube worms and mussels!) and left me to deal with the remaining barnacle rings which were layered up to a thickness of 1/4" in places.

Barge was 16' x 48', blasting time 18 hours. In the after pic you can see the outboards at the far end. Pair of 225 Hondas and with all the growth the barge would barely move at full throttle.

before

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after (still a little touch-up to do in this pic, especially the I beams)

PB180005.jpg (195.02 KiB) Viewed 3463 times

my rig, barge is under the blue tent

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[Jay Perrotta]

Ever seen "ice blasting"...

http://www.precision-iceblast.com/

Cool stuff..

[Chaps]

Ever seen "ice blasting"...

http://www.precision-iceblast.com/

Cool stuff..

Yeah, if you mean like blasting in blizzard conditions!

It actually is very neat and it has its applications but stripping barnacles isn't one of them. Too slow and the ice is way expensive compared to conventional grits. I'm offbeat enough shooting the media wet . . .