Many of the charts & tables found on this site are PDFs.

The acid-based products from Star brite and Marykate worked best, but are nasty to work with. The non-toxic Marsolve was not as effective.

Marsolve (left) is an aqueous organic salt solution that is biodegradable, non toxic and non corrosive. Its been around a long time and is primarily used to treat and clean steam boilers. Marykate On & Off (middle) contains hydrochloric, phosphoric and oxalic acids. It’s also sold under the West Marine name. Star brite Barnacle and Zebra Mussel Remover contains oxalic acid.

The editor of Powerboat Reports used to live in Connecticut, and ran his Neptune 212 Walkaround so often that his bottom paint lasted for years. When he moved to Florida, he thought he could get away with the last blush of that paint, and even a few unpainted spots on the bottom. After all, he was running the boat just as hard. Well, he was wrong (Florida readers: “Duh!”). After only three weeks in a slip, several thick, healthy and hard clusterings of barnacles covered those bare areas. …