I have just used a
water blaster to clean part of my
bilge with minor rust with my wet/dry vacuum to get most of the
water out.
I repeated using a water soluble degreaser and then spot dried using a hot air gun.
Followed this with spot wire brushing and vacuuming, then a spot prime and a full topcoat.
During times of high solvent concentrations (degreasing and painting) I used a Norton mask with filters to remove the solvent.
My $99 water blaster is powerfull enough to remove
paint.
I think that a water blaster can get a lot of the rubbish out of the way and reduce subsequent
work. The next step up would be a wet abrasive blast.
I console myself with the thought that
steel boats have been sailing the oceans for over 150 years (thats a lot more than this new fangled stuff), they all rust, and that it takes a lot of rust to compromise
steel.