Cleaning the hull with an underwater drone
How do we clean boats:
If you order a one-time cleaning or subscribe to one of our packages, we will arrive at the parking place of your boat and clean the bottom using the Italian underwater drone “KeelCrab”. This technique, unlike a diver, works at any time of the day and in any weather! Our drone is able to clean up to 97% of the underwater area of your boat or just inspect the condition of the boat, because the drone is equipped with cameras.
The drone is attached to the bottom of the yacht using powerful suction pumps. The same pumps help to remove algae and other contaminants that come off the body during the cleaning process. In addition, the drone has another tool – these are nylon brushes rotating in opposite directions or a roller brush. If necessary, they can be replaced with more rigid or even steel ones. Our specialist will determine on the spot which type of brushes is suitable specifically for your boat.
We use such brushes:
Disc nylon brushes
Disc steel brushes
Soft nylon brush
Medium hardness nylon brush
Rigid steel brush
Interaction with antifouling coating:
The drone’s movement is provided by natural rubber tracks, which make it easy to maneuver in all directions, on any surface and make the drone capable of overcoming obstacles. Drone movement is completely safe for antifouling coatings, not only for hard coatings, but even for self-polishing soft antifouling. Numerous tests have shown that the constant removal of the first layer of vegetation leads to an extension of the service life of the antifouling coating. This is due to the fact that after cleaning, the antifouling returns to direct contact with water, and this significantly slows down the formation of shellfish on the hull. Our drone has one more very important mechanism – a filter bag for collecting algae and other biological waste that has been removed from the hull. The bag allows you to extract most of the waste from the water. This is necessary to protect the antifouling coating from re-sticking, which is especially important in the stagnant water of closed reservoirs and harbors with poor circulation.