Under water treatment

[steffen]

I am stripping my inderwater hull down to the bare gelcoat.
I am still in two mind what to do when i am there:
a) coat with plain epoxy, first layer very high viscisity to impregnate the visibly porous gelcoat, next two layers normal or even thickened for hevier coating. Next primer, next A/F
Much work, long curing time, etc.
b) six layers of gelshield then A/F.
Easier, less work, but just as strong??

 

[kingfisher]

Steffen,

I did my hull last year in Gent with gelshield. I stripped off several layers of antifouling (hard work: scraping and then sanding with .40 and smoothing with a .120). I applied some gelcoat to damaged/pitted /thin areas, and then covered everything in 6 layers of Int'l Gelshield, about 200€ worth.

The Gelshield is quite thick, so it easyly covers and fills smaller cracks

Important: the last layer of gelshield has to be still wet (sticky) when you apply the first layer of antifouling, otherwise the two layers wont bond.

So far it has held perfectly. I haven't seen the boat out of the water yet, but I dove under the boat a few times this summer.

Go for the Gelshield!

Group of people on the pontoon: skipper is the one with the toolbox.
http://sirocco31.tripod.com

 

[vyv_cox]

Last winter I did almost exactly the same as you. I would advise Steffen to do the same, except that the visibly porous gelcoat might be best filled with epoxy filler first.

 

[steffen]

Thanks

Thanks for the advise guys.