Sanding, stripping hull to gelcoat - cost/time?

[roverhi]

Really depends on the bottom paint and how well it's adhered to the gel coat. If it is ablative paint, will sand off fairly quickly. Boat worker sanded mine down to the barrier coat in less than a day, 35' full keel centerboard boat. If you are talking hard vinyll paint, it could take days and probably best taken off with a stripp, Then there is the question of how much of a buildup. If it's been a decade or two of hard paint since it's been taken down to the glass, you have major work. If the yard will soda blast, that would be the way to go.

[Jim Cate]

FWIW: Some years ago, on our previous boat (old IOR one tonner, 36' OAL, 29' LWL, so similar to your Cat 36 in area) I hand scraped lots of old hard bottom paint off. Took me 50 hours of damn hard work. Used a 1 1/4 inch carbide scraper, didn't need much sanding afterward.

I won't be doing that again! But then I'm an old fart and subject to severe attacks of laziness!

Jim

PS The scrapings weighed almost 400 lbs!

[Don C L]

Are you sure the hull really needs it? Were there a lot of deep blisters? After trying to do this on a friend's boat, I now wonder if it isn't just better to wait and deal with the blisters individually as we find them at haul-out.

[hsi88]

Thank you for your replies. You answered all my questions. I just turned 61 about a week ago. 50+ hours of scraping or sanding seems pretty grueling. In practice, I never plan for more than 4-6 hours of actual labor in a day when I work on any project. And often, it becomes 2-4 hours as I tend to stop to mess around with tools or "scope things out".

No matter what I choose to strip the hull, finish sanding and fairing will probably take at least a couple additional weekends. I would love to save the $1500, but if I subtract the price of sanding disks and other supplies, driving 8 hours round trip and paying for at least one night in a local motel (boat is not set up for overnights), that $1500 is starting to sound pretty good.

[Three Sisters]

8hrs round trip

With one of these you can sleep, shower, cook, store tools.

[AKA-None]

I drive the rv to the yard and sleep in there, much nicer than driving back and forth

[hsi88]

LOL - Keeping the boat that far away is only temporary. I also have a slip in Pasadena MD that is just over an hour away from where I live. While the boat is on the hard in VA, I wanted to get the bottom sealed and painted.

I will also be mounting a remotely controlled 9.9 HP "kicker" motor to the stern before I make the trip (about 150 miles). The boat came with a rebuilt Yanmar 2QM15, but its been sitting for several years and my faith in the little diesel is not that great. I plan to keep both motors installed long term. Even though its a sailboat, I like the added security of a backup motor. Plus both motors are marginal in power, so there might be times I want to run both of them to make headway.

I have some sails for the boat, but they will need replaced in the next year or so. I also have about a year of interior/exterior work to do. Nothing major, but having owned a few "older" boats in the past, I realize it takes time to clean and paint (where needed). No soft spots to fix, but it leaks some rain water around some ports. Chainplates need inspected/sealed, some wiring upgrades, halyards and sheets replaced as needed, etc. etc.

Will have a long list of items to address over time, but will make it safe and sailable first, livable second, pretty to look at, last. And yes, I am one of those guys that enjoys a day on the boat doing nothing but fiddling with projects. I enjoy sailing, but I get just as much satisfaction, if not more, making something old, look like something new.

I doubt I will ever buy a larger boat than this. I have owned a Catalina 27 for a couple of years and was looking for something just a bit bigger. The Catalina 30 fills the bill. Engine access is outstanding, even more headroom, seating/sleeping/galley, it is bigger and better suited for longer stays in almost every category.

I appreciate the suggested RV's but don't mind staying in the local motels. Have even stayed in Williamsburg about an hour away, which is pretty nice. Unfortunately, those are weekends where little gets done. I also just bought a used Ford Expedition to tow my MacGregor 26X. And with the back seat folded down, there is more than enough room to sleep in the back. Something I might do next time down now that the weather is warming.

Thanks!

[Scot McPherson]

Before you think about doing it yourself, find out what the environmental laws are around you. You may need to take far more precaution than it's worth to do it yourself and it might be worth paying that guy $1500 to blast the paint down (and also blast any blisters off), then pay the other contractor to do the painting.


Cleaning up after blasting your boat can and will be a PITA, and if you leave even the tiniest of specs of bottom paint on the ground or in cracks of the pavement and an DEP DEEP or whatever equivalent inspector comes around, you are roasted.

[lancelot9898]

Have you asked the yard the price to peel the paint off? I had a peel job done about 5 years ago and it was a double peel into the gell and the chopped strand mat and was not much more than 2K there in Deltaville. Just removing bottom paint on a smaller boat should not be that much and there are some advantages to the peel vs blasting. FWIW

[guyrj33]

I've done both stripper and soda blasting in the 30+ years that we've owned our Pearson 10M.
I strongly recommend soda blasting.
You'll get plenty of exercise applying the barrier coat.
Hot coat the barrier epoxy and the first coat of bottom paint.

[JOHNMARDALL]

Professional blasting with soda or glass beads is the best way to go and $1500 is a reasonable price. As a do-it-yourself scaping and sanding job, it's a nightmare of backbreaking work and living in a cloud of highly toxic dust for three to five days, and that's if your marina or boat yard will allow ti. Yards on the Chesapeake are often and rightly unwilling to allow this environmental mini-disaster to happen on their properties.

Yes, I learned this the hard way.

Good luck

John Mardall
Vetus Maxwell Group

[Nadezhda]

Took me 5 long days to strip my long keeled 40' boat. She has a big bottom and so you might be able to do it in 3. I used a specialist scraper. I had 10 years of ablative antifoul on and some bits fell away and others needed careful and hard work. Suppose it depends on whether you have Hard or Soft antifoul.

[Hv2sail]

I'm contemplating doing the same thing to my 38 Island Packet. I've heard great things about soda blasting and the new dustless blasting. Good to hear about the chemical stripper. My boat is in Urbanna, so let me know who you are using to soda blast. I'd like to see some of their work and get a quote.

[wesevans]

If you are stripping the bottom you will need to consider that the hull will need to dry out so that you do not trap moisture under the epoxy barrier coat. this may take some time depending on the moisture in the glass, weather,temperature and humidity.

[sotavento]

Hi look up "GEL PLANNER" I had a C&C 34 done with it it was very efficien and fast.