Summary, pad locks die hard… and if they are made of hardened steel you have to get a grinder to remove them. I have yet to find a brand that will last for more than one month in the salt air, tropical environment.
On the other side once I remove the pad lock from the engine I took the dink down to the beach. I flipped her and remove all the growth… If I had tabasco and crackers some of these critters would have gone down good with a cold beer.
The dink now planes again…. This is only after two weeks of not hoisting her at night… I had mangrove oysters and coral and barnacles all over the bottom.