'Ello, 'ello, 'ello, what have we here then?

[KevinV]

Time to get the bottom sorted on the new (to me) 22' boat before imminent launch, and seeing this:



Anybody any idea what the brown is? It looks shiny - if I had to guess it's epoxy, but is there a way to test, or is it something completely standard?
As you can see, there's a thick layer of old antifouling on there - very tempting to take it all off if this underlying layer will give a loose edge to get under. On the other hand I really want to just get the boat in the water! Advice/thoughts appreciated.

There's also this:

I imagine this is the edge of a flange - I really don't want to drop the keel this year, but might next winter. There's zero sign of moisture in the encapsulated keel bolts. I have a few ideas of what I could do, but what would you do?

 

[vyv_cox]

It's a relatively small boat, on which scraping the hull would not be too onerous. I would scrape off the thick layers, which appear not to be well adhered. You could check the substrate by rubbing with acetone. Epoxy will not soften or transfer to a rag whereas another layer of paint will.

 

[KevinV]

It's a relatively small boat, on which scraping the hull would not be too onerous. I would scrape off the thick layers, which appear not to be well adhered. You could check the substrate by rubbing with acetone. Epoxy will not soften or transfer to a rag whereas another layer of paint will.

Brilliant, thank you for clarifying that. I'd slightly hoped to just splash and dash now, do a proper job in the summer when the weather is more clement, but you're probably right - just get on with it.

I guess scraping will show what I'm really looking at at the hull/keel joint too.

 

[neil_s]

My trusty vessel was built in 1977. I just scrape off the loose bits and recoat with AF. Surprisingly, it all gets smoother with each passing year. I'm not that bothered by rust on the keel, either. Get a good coat of blue (or red) on it and go sailing!

 

[wingcommander]

Get one of these Harris Heavy Duty Tungsten Carbide Wood Scraper 2
You will be amazed how easy it is compared to a regular push type thingy mo Bob.
Edit sorry meant the 4" version

 

[jamie N]

+1

 

[Bobc]

Chuck it in the water and sort it all out later. There's nothing there which needs looking at urgently

 

[vyv_cox]

Get one of these Harris Heavy Duty Tungsten Carbide Wood Scraper 2
You will be amazed how easy it is compared to a regular push type thingy mo Bob.
Edit sorry meant the 4" version

Yes, I have something similar. I scrape the top 30 cm or so every few years where the thickness builds up.

 

[Minerva]

Chuck it in the water and sort it all out later. There's nothing there which needs looking at urgently

This is what I’d do. Add scraping the hull back smooth to the “nice to do” list to do next winter, stick some antifoul on just now the get out and enjoy your new toy!

 

[vyv_cox]

Chuck it in the water and sort it all out later. There's nothing there which needs looking at urgently

I agree there is no great problem but I suspect that rolling fresh antifouling on will bring off a lot of the flaky stuff. In the end it would be quicker to remove the loose stuff first

 

[bignick]

The last thing you want is to stick anti fouling over the top of that and then have it flake off in big chunks, so I would actually advocate scraping it all off now. Perfect job for January, when you don’t want to be sailing anyway.
Get yourself a decent scraper (I still use Anza ones) and a pack of blades. You should be able to do the whole hull in less than a day.

 

[[194224]]

Get one of these Harris Heavy Duty Tungsten Carbide Wood Scraper 2
You will be amazed how easy it is compared to a regular push type thingy mo Bob.
Edit sorry meant the 4" version

+1 for that

I have a Bahco two-handed job but make sure you round off the sharp corners of the blade a little or they can gouge as your enthusiasm takes over.

 

[KevinV]

A bit of an update on this - I decided to go the "take it all off and start again" route - and am (mostly) glad I did.

The layers of crud on the keel literally fell away as soon as I touched them, revealing mostly intact epoxy primer on the steel. The rusty looking boundary between keel and bottom is fairing compound being blown out of the gap - I have dug this out without too much bother.

The hull on the other hand is proving a sod to get clean (3 afternoons so far, and just over 1/3 done), the black layer between the normal AF and the (now proven to be) epoxy is an absolute swine to get off - I'm thinking it might be one of the vinyl type primers. I couldn't bear the noise of the tungsten scraper, so am using an electric one, which does a good but slow job. Then doing the last bits with 80 grit on a random orbiter.

When clean the epoxy is very fair, with some tiny osmosis blisters (nothing worth worrying about). It's so good in fact that I'm incredibly tempted to go down the Coppercoat route - I really don't want to be under there again next year, and the cost is only about double of regular AF (yes, I have a live quote). The boat's a keeper, so it seems to make sense.

 

[bignick]

Coppercoat is really sensitive to temperature when it is applied. I wouldn’t even comsider doing it at this time of year unless you were in a heated shed. Put a self-polishing copolymer on instead and there will only be a small amount of it left next time you haul out And it comes off relatively easily.

 

[zoidberg]

Get one of these Harris Heavy Duty Tungsten Carbide Wood Scraper 2
You will be amazed how easy it is compared to a regular push type thingy mo Bob.

Yes.

But DO grind back the corners of the blade to avoid 'digging in' - otherwise you'll spend hours repairing 'dings'.

 

[zoidberg]

Of course, there is that concept first heard from Mike Peyton.....
"If it's below the waterline it doesn't show and if it's above the waterline it doesn't matter."

 

[fisherman]

You might be surprised how much a (hired) pressure washer will remove. With due regard for nearby boats of course.
Or of course you could pay for soda blasting.

 

[KevinV]

Final update on this thread - I went the whole nine yards.
I Deeply regret the amount of time it took to get the hull clean, and the keel clean enough to prime and fair, but by the time I'd done it the coppercoat was a no-brainer. Then it was a matter of waiting for a window in the weather, which we finally had this weekend.

Really chuffed that I could balance the boat on straps so I could drop the trailer legs out of the way to paint straight through (apart from under the keel of course).


Incredibly hard work on my own, even on a small boat - once you start you can't stop, and it's heavy stuff to work.
Anyway, here she is in all her brownness when I finished last night.

 

[neil_s]

Really impressed! I'll be hiding up the top of the creek with my lumpy bottom!

 

[Stemar]

Nice job.

Just a thought - it's going to be a bit breezy over the next couple of days. You might want to get those props back in place if you haven't already.