Antifoul removal

[sailorgirl]

I'm looking for some advice... what system would anyone recommend for the removal of several years worth of antifoul from a hull that was gel shielded when it was new?

This years application of antifoul has caused the underlying layers to flake off leaving a very rough surface. Next year we intend to be a little more serious about our racing so want the best smooth surface we can.

Sailorgirl

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[Talbot]

Removall worked very well on TCMs little boat. Saved a LOT of effort.

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[tyce]

i have just done mine for the same reason as you are planning.
it would have been nice to pay some one to do it with slurry blasting, but i decided if i did it the money i saved i could spend on a folding prop which will improve performance even more.
so i used the pressure washer and paint scraper method, i managed to get 80 % of with a jet washer and the rest was relatively easy with the scraper.
try using the jet wash you may be lucky and it will take it off, although another boat at the club had to do it all with a scraper as the jet wash wouldnt shift it.
but worth trying it.
have fun

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[asj1]

If you need to use a scraper we have found that the large "two-handed" ones work very well, but it's a long job. You need to scrape only a narrow line at a time say one-third of the width of the blade gradually working across the hull. We did it two years ago; approx 4 man days of work (but fairly shortish "days")

<hr width=100% size=1>Andrew

 

[Elza_Skip]

This has come up before in this forum, however you may want to look at PBO this month as there is an article in there.

I have to do mine this year and plan to buy one of the scrapers that fit onto a vacuum cleaner. I have a friend in the business who typically uses a chisel

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[Marsupial]

Please be carefull what you breath in! Anti foul dust is very toxic.

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[mirabriani]

Yes it is best to just breath out!

Shades of Norman Wisdom at the doctors surgery.

Regards Briani

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[LittleShip]

I used one of these and I can’t praise it high enough, you can work clean and safe. It removed several years of anti foul on a 32’ trawler down to the wood in one weekend. I have also used it for removing varnish from wood and cleaning gaskets off engine bits. Worth every penny.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.gelplane.co.uk/proscraper/marine.asp>http://www.gelplane.co.uk/proscraper/marine.asp</A>

No connection with the company just a satisfied customer.

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I wish I'd been born rich instead of good looking ?

 

[DepSol]

See the review in this months edition of PBO, very good and helpful.

<hr width=100% size=1>Dom

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.soltron.co.uk>the website</A>
MMS - Discount Chandlery

 

[Piere]

ditto pbo december
very good article

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[roger]

Bosch make a sort of reciprocating chisel - it coast about £55 from Screwfix. Someone at our club used one and said it was good.

<hr width=100% size=1>Roger

 

[Avocet]

I found that several layers came off easiest when they had dried out for a week or two and had gone a bit more brittle. I used a hand scraper with replaceable carbide blades (think it was a 2" Sandvik). Anyway, keep the blades very sharp. That seems to be the key. Once the blade "bites", if you keep good pressure on it, all the layers of A/F just "shatter" off ahead of the blade. Once you get the knack, it's not as slow as you'd think and the bits are quite big so there's nothing like as much dust as there is if you sand it. The downside is that it's physically pretty hard work - especially on an older-style hull where there might be "hollow" curves so you're working "inside -out" as it were and it becomes very hard to keep an even pressure on the blade. Another problem is that it will be almost inevitable that you will gouge the epoxy with the corner of the blade in a few places. Grinding a little radius on the ends of the blades helps a bit.

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[sailorgirl]

Hmmm - not certain that I have the time or the will to scrape 47 foot of bottom... there must be a faster / easier method?

SailorGirl

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[Joe_Cole]

I've got the Bosch power chisel and it worked very well when I did my boat. Highly recomended. Straight through all the layers of antifoul with little damage to the gel coat. (some damage was inevitable, but it was easily fixed with a little epoxy)

I don't think I'ld like to do a 47footer, but then I can't think of any way that I would like to do a 47footer....short of getting someone else to do the job.

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