Hull-foul is any growth that clings to a ship and (detrimentally) affects its passage; it is a term of effect rather than taxonomy. A wide range of biota, from plants and animals to fungus and life forms far stranger may be considered hull foul; in some seas, crystals grow upon ship hulls and form non-living hull foul. The cloud-seas and sand-seas have their equivalents to the hull foul found in the more common water-seas.
Sailors must regularly beach their vessels to scrape off barnacles and cling-coral, enrobing seaweed and lampreys or their ships may lose as much as a third of their speed; the ship-foul acts as a great clogging traction break. Worse, acorn-headed drill-worms and rot-gnaw lampreys will screw through the wood, eventually reducing the hull to a sieve.
While this may not seem the stuff of adventure, the need to stop and beach on some handy shore may strand Our Heroes ashore at some unexpected way stations. Beaching and lifting the ship to cut and scrape away the hull foul may take several days. A ship, once hauled ashore, cannot be quickly launched; Our Heroes may thus find themselves forced to take a stand on some strange shore.
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