Removal of antifouling

[yachtmerlin]

I agree with little ship. The vacuum attachment cut down dramatically on the mess. As advised by many, corners need to be ground to avoid digging into the gelcoat.

Also tried Interstrip with and without cling film cover. Messy and largely ineffective. They may have changed the formulation since then if others are getting better results.

 

[gjgm]

Try a wallpaper scraper.. b+q,screwfix etc.. its 12inch long with and angled blade,about £7.
I say try.. worked pretty well for me on 4 years of hard Trilux a/f. Afterwards I remembered I had a Lidl power scraper (like the bosch one). Tried it on a small remaining patch: I reckon if the wallpaper scraper works, this will work a treat, but I suspect if the manual scraper doesnt work, this probably wont be much better. How long you might be able to use it continuously before it blows up, I dont know !

 

[Avocet]

A couple of points in the OP's case:

1. Be really careful with chemical strippers! I don't know if Avocet was a "Friday night Cutlass" but I once spilled some Nitromors off the toerail on the topsides and the gelcoat was bubbling within about 30 seconds! OK, Dilunet is supposed to be less agressive, but I don't think my gelcoat is all that robust!

2. I've never had any luck with angle grinders and twisted wire mops. I know the sort you mean, but they just seem to "burnish" the antifoul, rather than remove it.

3. Is there a large buildup of antifouling on your hull? If so, I think a scraper would probably be your best bet. Oddly, a thin layer of antifoul is much harder to remove with a scraper, but a thick one seems to "burst" off the hull when you get the scraper at JUST the correct angle. (Quite rewarding when it does that, actually)!

4. Being a long-keeler with encapsulated ballast, you'll have a lot more hull area than most boats of that size. Worse than that, you'll have to cope with internal curves. It's a real pain in that respect. The two-handled scrapers that take replaceable carbide blades (with suitably rounded corners!) are probably the best tool I've come across.

 

[BAtoo]

I'm considering stripping existing coatings back to bare gelcoat, then abrading, prior to application of Coppercoat. 'Slurry blasting' is not an option.

I have access to handheld carbide scrapers, angle grinder holding twisted knot wire brushes, similar but with flap wheels, similar but with flat scouring pad....

Who's done this? What have you found effective...?

I've done it a few times (never to prepare for Coppercoat though)

Best option:- slurry blasting
Next Best:- pay someone to do it
Last option:- carbide scraper with edges rounded off.

Had my 31ft fin keel slurry blasted hull, shot blasted keel & 1 coat of VCtar applied to keel for around 500 inc vat 3 yrs ago.

(I did the rest of the VC tar)