Sailfree
Well-Known Member
10yrs of Micron extra peeling in places!
Firstly after 4 days of rubbing down the bad areas with an orbital sander I am developing muscles but can still only manage short bursts holding sander over my head. Got face covered and good fitting face filter and high winds are wonderful in taking dust away ( the bit that not collected in the dust bag). I am always standing upwind.
However if I realised how bad anti foul condition was I would have arranged to strip it using soda blasting. Other method I seen work well was doing it in 500mm squares with cling film covering the paint stripper then scrape. However 43' boat would be hard work/expensive any way I tried.
I thought anti foul was self eroding but on my boat it's very thick in places and little bond between various coats.
Problems
1. certain areas were easy to rub down to the gel coat and I suspect the mould release wax was badly cleaned off especially one patch that matches exactly the area and position of a cradle support.
2. 1st coat was blue and next years I went for black applied by boat yard. It was applied straight on top of the pressure wash by "professionals". I note that International Paints fact sheets States this method. All I can say is that some areas the bond was inadequate.
3. When I go over the anti foul with the sander problem areas just shed a complete layer and area grows as I try to get to an edge that "feathers". Again complete lack of bond between yearly coats. I suspect the major cause of this is applying a second coat too soon. We always waited until it was dry but now looking up fact sheet and allowing for cold weather we should have left it 24hrs between coats.
4. I am wondering how well anti foul was stirred but think this might be a minor point as I did most of the stirring not my crew! I do wonder though about the areas that are very thick with anti foul build up and 100% bonded between coats and can only conclude that very thick and hence inadequately mixed antifoul was applied in these areas - mostly along water line (2 coats each year) but certainly not been self eroding but bond between coats in these thick areas appears excellent!
Solution
5. with mechanical rubbing down and feathered edges I am hoping this years coat ( changing to blue) will adhere well but will wash down white gel coat areas with white spirit and use a primer.
Will see how good the prep is once I start applying this years antifoul!
Firstly after 4 days of rubbing down the bad areas with an orbital sander I am developing muscles but can still only manage short bursts holding sander over my head. Got face covered and good fitting face filter and high winds are wonderful in taking dust away ( the bit that not collected in the dust bag). I am always standing upwind.
However if I realised how bad anti foul condition was I would have arranged to strip it using soda blasting. Other method I seen work well was doing it in 500mm squares with cling film covering the paint stripper then scrape. However 43' boat would be hard work/expensive any way I tried.
I thought anti foul was self eroding but on my boat it's very thick in places and little bond between various coats.
Problems
1. certain areas were easy to rub down to the gel coat and I suspect the mould release wax was badly cleaned off especially one patch that matches exactly the area and position of a cradle support.
2. 1st coat was blue and next years I went for black applied by boat yard. It was applied straight on top of the pressure wash by "professionals". I note that International Paints fact sheets States this method. All I can say is that some areas the bond was inadequate.
3. When I go over the anti foul with the sander problem areas just shed a complete layer and area grows as I try to get to an edge that "feathers". Again complete lack of bond between yearly coats. I suspect the major cause of this is applying a second coat too soon. We always waited until it was dry but now looking up fact sheet and allowing for cold weather we should have left it 24hrs between coats.
4. I am wondering how well anti foul was stirred but think this might be a minor point as I did most of the stirring not my crew! I do wonder though about the areas that are very thick with anti foul build up and 100% bonded between coats and can only conclude that very thick and hence inadequately mixed antifoul was applied in these areas - mostly along water line (2 coats each year) but certainly not been self eroding but bond between coats in these thick areas appears excellent!
Solution
5. with mechanical rubbing down and feathered edges I am hoping this years coat ( changing to blue) will adhere well but will wash down white gel coat areas with white spirit and use a primer.
Will see how good the prep is once I start applying this years antifoul!
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