Removing Anti-fouling

[LORDNELSON]

I need to remove anti-fouling from my grp boat (28 foot Westerly). I do not want to involve myself in lots of hard labour and think the way to go is some kind of removal by high pressure hose and slurry. I would be grateful if anyone has experience of such a system and how happy they were with the finished job and whether the gel coat was damaged at all. Many thanks.

 

[Elessar]

I need to remove anti-fouling from my grp boat (28 foot Westerly). I do not want to involve myself in lots of hard labour and think the way to go is some kind of removal by high pressure hose and slurry. I would be grateful if anyone has experience of such a system and how happy they were with the finished job and whether the gel coat was damaged at all. Many thanks.

It's the way to go! I may just be a teensy bit biased though

 

[rob2]

I've done this on my Weston 8.5m, as a DIY job using a Karcher washer and attachment. It's not hard labour, but slow, tedious, messy and fairly costly. You need good dry weather and a substantial supply of kiln dried sand - which must be kept bone dry or it will stick in the venturi pipe. A tarpauline to collect the sand is needed or your neighbours will curse you for years about the fine sand in every crevice of their boat.

The results are impressive. You can either choose to remove nearly all the antifouling, suitable for recoating, or go the whole hog and take the substrate to a fine open texture, suitable for epoxy coating (in my case Coppercoat).

Despite protective clothing - overalls, hat, mask and goggles - you will also have the softest ex-foliated face!

Rob.

 

[Elessar]

You need good dry weather and a substantial supply of kiln dried sand
Rob.

be sure you don't us regular sand - you MUST use something without free silica. Regular sand used in a blaster splits on impact so releases silicates which can cause silicosis. This is as deadly as asbestosis and therefore using regular sand is rightly illegal.

We us olivine for all our blasting FWIW.

 

[[27631]]

A/foul removal

Hi.look at 'Cirrus' systems...Portland..Dorset..
Ian

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

Wear proper BA or at the very least a military spec respirator with filter.