Anti foul paint removal

[howardclark]

I’m already thinking about when the boat is out next year! Firstly this is not really relevant to fibreglass hulls- I’ve got a wooden hull with cascover sheathing. I use eroding anti fouling which over 15 years has built up to a very lumpy finish. Last time we cleaned it off we had it sandblasted, but this caused the cascover sheathing to have a woolly finish which could only be flattened by filling with lots of antifouling!
I’m considering all the possible removal methods but on such a large hull will not be scraping manually.
I’ve seen a different sort of removal tool- well it’s new to me anyway- a Metabo paint remover( LS 850) which seems to act a bit like a plane but with the blades rotating at 90 degrees to a normal power sander ( a bit like a flymo rotary grass cutter). Depth of cut from 0.1 to 0.3mm and a workshop vacuum can attach.
Has anyone got experience of using this piece of kit and any thoughts. All advice is welcome

 

[Tranona]

I had my Cascover sheathed boat blasted and the underwater area worked well. Just a bit of filling and fairing then Jotun Vinyguard88 primer. The topsides was less successful as it had the original plasticised coating which started to ball up so stopped before too much damage. On the advice of Wessex Resins I flatted it down, filled with epoxy fairing filler and painted with Toplac. That worked very well.

 

[Sneaky Pete]

You have stated sand blasting, could you not have it blasted with a salt/water mix which is less severe on the surface. I had years of antifoul removed last year this way and it left a smooth surface finish on the gelcoat.