Mistroma
Well-known member
I left my old Southerly until it started to develop flaky bits and bumps. I think it had a mixture of eroding and non-eroding antifoul (dating back to 1980, TBT and similar). It was fine every year, until is suddenly wasn't. I think I could have had a decent mould by then if it could be removed in one part.
I hadn't felt any need to remove the paint before then and would agree with previous comments. i.e. Leave it until it starts to be uneven and flakes.
Fortunately, removal was easy with my Bosch wood chisel and I took the hull back to shiny virgin white gel-coat in one weekend with little effort. Large flakes on ground filled a couple of buckets when brushed up. Virtually no dust and the mask was still pretty clean at the end.
I repeated the process many years later on my 42DS with the same result. Didn't work for everyone though. I lent it to a friend and it did nothing because he had soft antifoul. It just moved it around a bit, like chewing gum. Pity Bosch discontinued the chisel. Multi-tools don't work as they move from side to side. The chisel vibrates forwards and backwards to shatter brittle antifoul.
I hadn't felt any need to remove the paint before then and would agree with previous comments. i.e. Leave it until it starts to be uneven and flakes.
Fortunately, removal was easy with my Bosch wood chisel and I took the hull back to shiny virgin white gel-coat in one weekend with little effort. Large flakes on ground filled a couple of buckets when brushed up. Virtually no dust and the mask was still pretty clean at the end.
I repeated the process many years later on my 42DS with the same result. Didn't work for everyone though. I lent it to a friend and it did nothing because he had soft antifoul. It just moved it around a bit, like chewing gum. Pity Bosch discontinued the chisel. Multi-tools don't work as they move from side to side. The chisel vibrates forwards and backwards to shatter brittle antifoul.