Antifoul removal

BlueChip

BlueChip

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I know this comes up from time to time and I looked back through past posts but there is no clear answer.

We came out of the water last weekend and the antifoul has crazed, water has got under it and its flaking off in places leaving the primer behind. It's now all got to come off. I spent a couple of hours with a scaper and cleaned a square meter or so, but with two sides of a 37' hull to do I just haven't got time to go that route.

As I see it my two options are to use either some sort of abrasive blasting or a chemical treatment. Or may be there is another suggestion?

I have read reviews from people who used dilunet, some rave about it others say its useless, any views from users here?

What about blasting, has anyone who has had this done gor a recomendation?

We are in Portsmouth
 
Dilunett...

I've used Dilunett. It works, but it's filthy stuff. You need to wear protective clothing, gloves and goggles. A pressure washer is quite a good way of washing it off - make sure Dilunett-laden spray mist doesn't get on to neighbouring boats! (And park your car a long way away!)
 
Re: Dilunett...

Did mine over the last couple of weekends. Used a gelplane pro scraper in partnership with a £10 vacume cleaner from Asda.

Not as bad as I feared but was still very pleased to be finished. Took 8 hours in total for a 28 footer.

Vacume cleaner was only fit for the skip when finished and sucke its last breath just after the last scraping came off, don't even think of using your domestic one, you won't want it back in the house afterwards.

http://www.gelplane.co.uk/proscraper/product.asp
 
Hire a compressor with air gun stibbler (it's a tool with a lot of little needles that hammer in and out). Chips AF away in no time at all, and with a bit of experience you don't make any marks on the substrate.
 
I have just gone through the same issue. I tried scraping and thought it was too much like hard work. Bought some expensive Removall 610 with recommendations from forum but could not spray apply as per instruction due to proximity of other boats. Brushed it on as thick as possible and found it either dried after the time to allow it to penetrate and became like chewingum, or only penetrated top two paint layers. It was also extremley messy.

To cut al long story short went back to scraping and bought a pro scraper, attached a vacuum and did the job on a 32 footer in two weekends without the mess. It was a lot easier where the removall hadn't been previously applied. The only effortless way is to pay for someone else to do it.
 
I've just had CopperCoat on mine - the contractor used a slurry blast from a specialist. This is not as great a cost as you might think and leaves you clean and tidy (all the muck leaves with the contractor). Alternatively, one idea I had, should I ever need to repeat the exercise, is a "sand blasting" kit from B+Q which works with a jet wash (so is essentially like a slurry wash again) but I have absolutely no experience of this.
 
Hi my coppercoat has just about had it, can i use ordinary anti foul over it or must i remove the coppercoat completely,its been on for 10 years now and is very thin in places, it would be easier to just coppercoat again, but very expensive. regards Chris.
 
I was impressed by the results of the Farrow system used on my boat to shift both anti foul and primer. Not cheap but way better than hand scraping or the chemical strippers I tried which were almost as much work as scraping and almost as much cost as blasting.
 
If your in Portsmouth you need to check your yards policy-I believe Ken Browns, Gosport BY for example don't allowing whilst Port Solent do.

If your thinking of blasting Symblast have a good reputation as does the Farrow System already mentioned. The success all depends on the skill of the operator-although most people I know who have had it done seem pleased with the result.
 
I have to agree with Tomkat and Capricorn re pro scrapper. I also did a 32' in 2 weekends and it had approx 8 coats of A/F on.

One word of warning wear protective clothing and round the edges of the blade so it wont cut into the hull /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif.....that maybe two words of warning.

Its worth the effort with this device as it leaves a good finish and is also fairly clean due to the use of the vacuum cleaner!

Tom /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I had exactly the same problem when trying to remove my antifouling last winter. I tried scraping by hand and it was about as slow as you found. I also tried various chemical strippers. These were incredibly expensive, ineffective and messy.
I was very forlornly scraping at the stuff witha chisel when I heard a chuckle from next to me. It wasn't the laughing gnome but someone holding a "Sandvik" scraper. He lent me this and I did the whole boat in one day. Thoroughly recommend it but you do have to watch for bits of AF flying in all directions.
I would have thought you would need a couple of days at least for a 37 footer
 
Pay someone to blast the hull for you. This is one of those awful jobs and is well worth spending the money.

Other jobs in the same catergory include digging holes in the ground and knocking up concrete by hand. Oh, and longboarding the hull.

The only time I'd attempt to remove antifoul by hand is if you can turn the boat upside down.
 
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