Scraping anti-foul down to the bare hull

Ruffles

Ruffles

Well-Known Member
Joined
26 Feb 2004
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3,046
Location
Boat: Portsmouth, Us: Stewkley
www.soulbury.demon.co.uk
I had a test attempt to scrape the anti-foul off my Moody 31 last weekend. I'm using a cheap electric scraper.

I was impressed how fast it was. I did one side of the rudder in around 15 minutes. So I reckon, assuming the tool lasts, I can probably do the lot in around two miserable weekends.

However the ARC guys were blasting the anti-fouling off a wooden boat in the yard. They did a great job. Must admit I'm very tempted...

Has anyone successfully done this job by hand?

One thing I noticed. The vibration doesn't do your hand any good. Are there gloves designed to protect against this?
 
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The vibration doesn't do your hand any good

[/ QUOTE ] No it wont. In fact if you are not careful you can do yourself some severe harm . I knew someone who ended up in really bad trouble and continuous severe pain as a result of using a "nibbler" to cut half of the roof off a bus.
 
There are gloves available called anti vibration gloves, used for using jack hammers etc, the stem from a complaint called"white knuckle" miners suffered from it a lot, as a result of using drills underground from the cold and the vibration,

AFIK it takes years to develop and the cold was a big issue, it is nerve damage that occurs.

It arose a few years ago and became a big issue on a job where I was safety officer, The danger of dropping the breaker because of the gloves was a greater hazard and the gloves were discarded, ( it was a Hydraulic breaker and it had heated handles)
 
please bear in mind than the antifouling is very poisoning stuff ! good precautions are compulsory if you dont like to have a health problem later
just an worning !
 
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as per previous post on this subject, I used my Bosch scraper to strip my 8.5 meter bilge keel boat. quite an easy process with no damage to my hands from vibration, I didn't wear any gloves.

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Perhaps I'm being overcautious. I was surprised how well it worked. I was using the blunt blade held at quite an oblique angle so it was effectively chipping the paint off. The thicker the paint the more easily it flew off. Not damage to the gel coat at any stage.

Did you have to prep the surface before repainting? The guys doing the blasting suggested I'd have to sand to provide a key. The advantage of blasting is that you get this as part of the process.
 
I've just bought one of these scrapers of ebay... will have to see how i get on this weekend ! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I have 40 foot of hull to do /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
 
I suspect you'll be needing a good mp3 player as well;)

I plan to mark lines on the hull. When I finish each block I'll allow myself a cupper+biccy or beer.

I'm tempted to redo the boot top. It's currently two stripes of contrasting eroding anti-fouling. This makes little sense to me since the white between the lines gets stained and fouled. And when you scrub it the blue bleeds over the white.

Should I raise the line of the anti-foul? Or replace the boot top stripes with some sort of enamel?
 
"Should I raise the line of the anti-foul? Or replace the boot top stripes with some sort of enamel? "

I did both (sort of). Antifouled to the top of the old boot top stripe. Put a new boot top stripe above (Blakes Waterline).

You can just about see the effect on my avatar.
 
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However the ARC guys were blasting the anti-fouling off a wooden boat in the yard. They did a great job. Must admit I'm very tempted...


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Is blasting available in many yards / marinas? After starting to scrape my boat by hand I started doing some research on blasting machines with a view to purchasing one. I have been wondering if there is a call for a mobile antifoul stripping service in the south east. Has any one any thoughts?
 
I am currently weighing up the options about stripping off the antifoul on our Westerly Storm (10m fin keel). We have always used eroding and the A/F layer is quite thin, but this year's run up the French canals knocked some patches out of it . Looked at the liquid stripper options and so far I am inclined towards the Cirrus Systems Removall. The attraction is that it is non aggressive and slow working i.e. you apply the stuff and come back the next day to scrape and hose off. ( although you should really monitor progress). There are two versions, one for spray application, the other for brush and the stuff is claimed to be environmentally friendly. Classic Boat rate it.
My boat would need a 20 litre drum of Removall at £153.10 delivered. A Bosch scraper is around £80. I'm sure if I bought one, I'd find another use for it, but the idea of just slapping on the Cirrus stuff and coming back the following day for a quick scrape and spray, job done, does appeal. I hold no brief for Cirrus, but I was impressed with how helpful they were and on the face of it, Removall seems like a good product. If I go that route, I'll report back to the Forum, although I'm sure there must be Forumites who have tried it.
 
yes, removall extremely good gear. I have to strip a boat soon and no way would i use the scrape scrape option. Once removall has taken effect (overnight) you just wipe off. Best is then apply second coat if needed, and eventually hose off. Careful with jetwash once used removall else everyone else in the yard will get a smattering of removall too
 
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Is blasting available in many yards / marinas? After starting to scrape my boat by hand I started doing some research on blasting machines with a view to purchasing one. I have been wondering if there is a call for a mobile antifoul stripping service in the south east. Has any one any thoughts?

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They're actually based in my yard. He quoted a price per foot but I'm afraid my mental arithmetic didn't engage at the time. It can't be that cheap because they are unlikely to manage more than one boat per day and it requires two people. Plus the investment in gear and use of materials.

I might ask for a quote - if only to justify to SWMBO two weekends in the yard....
 
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yes, removall extremely good gear. I have to strip a boat soon and no way would i use the scrape scrape option. Once removall has taken effect (overnight) you just wipe off. Best is then apply second coat if needed, and eventually hose off. Careful with jetwash once used removall else everyone else in the yard will get a smattering of removall too

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I might be wrong here but I suspect that where you have an accumulation of years of paint removall might be less affective? On the other hand scraping seems to be much harder where the paint is thin 'cos it doesn't flake off.

The most likely scenario is I waste a weekend scraping, give up, and get it blasted anyway. Thereby costing time AND money.
 
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