Regularity

Every time the grass needs mowing, your vessel's hull is also being slowly but surely reclaimed by nature.  Painting your house and painting your vessel's hull are also necessary for better protection, and in the case of your vessel, for ultimate performance and fuel efficiency.  A vessel left with remnants of hard growth can easily become a "crusty" boat that also will compromise performance and will make it harder to keep.  The ablative paints are meant to help growth fall off, not prevent it.  A boat that is regularly used may require less regular underwater maintenance, but can not skip it all together.  Each vessel may present different characteristics that need to be addressed accordingly.  

Location

"The grass is always greener" is not something that you really want when it comes to your vessel, but just the same, inevitable.  Nonetheless, some locations are more conducive to different types of underwater growth.  The nearby presence of a swamp, a mangrove, an inlet, a river, or a combination of these to different extents and more can significantly change the requirements of regular cleaning.  We work with you to help establish a sensible and variable yearly schedule, yes, seasons, water temperatures, and even the way the Sun presents to your vessel while docked are also factors to consider if applicable.  We have seen them all at play to varying degrees.  Rest assured, we want to perform a responsible service.  In some extraordinary locations, underwater visibility will completely prevent for full documentation before and after video of our services, and will also have the work take longer to complete since it has to be done by "feel", and more methodically.  Should your vessel be in one of such locations, we don't want you to find underwater "surprises" when you go to the sandbar or a reef when this is the case.  But if you do, we will work with you to fix the issue.  May even meet you at the sandbar if at all possible.  But you surely understand this, and we will let you know if we feel the grit of mud around our lips as we move around while cleaning your vessel.

It is a delicate job

A delicate job in a tough environment indeed.  Per design, the ablative paints are to let growth come off along with a minuscule amount of paint when the vessel reaches certain hull speeds, yet ideally not with the action of water alone, regardless of speed.  Talk about technology at its best.  We are acutely aware of this, and our precise work will help extend the life of your vessel's paint.  

Static Electricity

Anodes, otherwise commonly known as "sacrificial zincs" are not all made equal, and also require correct installation to work as intended.  As your vessel sits on the water, the action of wind, barometric pressure, temperature, and even moisture changes bestows your vessel with a positive electric charge.  This inevitable charge needs to find its way into the water, and metallic surfaces become the primary path for this discharge.  This subtle charge is also attractive to life underwater, metallic parts underwater are prime locations for growth, we carefully monitor this, and prevent it.  The downside of this not being monitored closely will compromise large metal components, propellers sadly being prime victims of structural integrity due to this.

Usage

The more you use your vessel, and the best you keep up when new paint is required, the less regular maintenance your vessel will require.  As a new customer to Little Fish Diving, and while we get to find what the ideal schedule for your vessel will be like, we will only charge you for a "visit" fee if we find your vessel does not yet require a full regular service, basically our traveling costs and time.  Of course you can opt to have us perform regular services nonetheless if it is your preference, you can discuss this with us, and you can let us know in advance if you extensively used your vessel during a particular season and would like to skip a week or two.  We usually work on "weekly units" when shuffling set schedules, normally one or two at a time.  But again, we work with you, for you.  

Docks

We obviously require safety while doing our work as needed.  Electrical shore connections must be in working order, safe.  Also, docks typically have fresh water available, and we use it to both clean the area of the dock we may have compromised, to clean ourselves, an area of the boat if we had to use the boat to climb out of the water, and our tools.  For some jobs, we may temporarily require electricity for cavitation systems as well.