Soda Blasting

[raro3]

I'm thinking of having my hull soda-blasted this year to remove a couple of decades' anti-fouling. It's a 34ft long-keel sailing boat based in Chichester Harbour. Can anyone recommend a firm to do this (or have any views on soda blasting in general)? Cheers, Phil

 

[KevB]

I had my boat soda blasted by http://symblast.com. They do a lot of work in Chichester marina. They did a first class job for me.

 

[oldsaltoz]

Blasting is only as good as the person on the hose. Many have to fill lots of over blasted spots and depending what they use and what preparation is done will effect you down the track.

If you go soda blasting I would advise tou to be there and observe the work, take lots of pictures.

However, it is a good time to think about laying up some copper-coat.

Good luck and fair winds.

 

[oldbilbo]

I did the 'soda blasting' job on my own boat earlier this year 'cos I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow the kit from an excellent friend and fellow-forumeer..... also 'cos the boat is too far from any of the pro practitioners.

It worked well. The learning curve was steep. I had a boat paint specialist drop by afterwards, and he approved the results. I'd certainly encourage others to consider this means of stripping a hull and, provided you are able to engage a good pro with good equipment, relatively painless.

One added benefit of having the gear and 'product' at home was that I was able to clean up a range of anchors, grills, grubby stone work, and made other garden bits and pieces ready for repainting. That was worth a handful of 'brownie points'.....

One downside of DIY is that the compressor-kit and medium is potentially hazardous in unwary hands. For example, the soda material abraded through the insides of the blast nozzle's ball valve and then jetted out at around 4 bar straight at my hand. Had I not been wearing quite tough gauntlets ( 'cos they're what I had handy ) I would have had a significant injury. This happened a second time, quite quickly, after replacing the damaged nozzle with a new one, before I worked out what was happening and sought pro advice and much better quality nozzles.

I also luckily had a polycarbonate face-shield on a helmet with ear protectors - a remnant from another job - which protected my eyes from the occasional ricochet and flying pieces of paint-flake. Ordinary safety goggles swiftly misted up, encouraging one to remove them so as to see the work piece......

I also found it valuable to 'ring-fence' the area with barrier ropes, keeping the postman and delivery drivers at a safe distance, for on several occasions I neither saw nor heard them arrive.