SoCal boat yard recomendations-soda blast and barrier coat

[Thank you dad]

I am going to be needing a barrier coat this winter which is going to include Soda blasting or some other method of taking 20 plus years of bottom paint off. Boat is in Newport and for a job of this magnitude i am considering yards anywhere from Ensendada to Santa Barbara. Any recomendations as well as places to stay away from is appreciated. Also curious if anyone has a guess what this is going to cost.

Thanks,
JBL

[Bohemian17]

If you have a lot of blisters blasting is a waste of time. If there are a lot of blisters you need to gel strip the boat. Be careful or you will waste a lot of money. For every blister you see there are ten more. First pressure wash and look to see if you are popping blisters. If no blisters then soda blasting is a decent method. Just a heads up.

[rebel heart]

If I had to do work I'd either talk to Johnathan at Cruiseport Marina, Esenada or Hoffman Yachts at Shelter Island Boat Yard, San Diego.

Both of those I can personally vouch for.

[Thank you dad]

Perhaps i was wrong, but i was under the impression that soda blasting did the same thing as gel stripping you speak of, i am going to need to take the bottom all the way down and start again. I know where are some blisters and I would guess as you say there are many more once we take the paint all the way down.

[Bohemian17]

Yes if you have a blister problem do not soda blast because then you stand up the rhyming the entire rest of the joke coad and all the primary skin coat off of your phone a lot for work and very expensive a good person with a gel strips machine will cut a 40 foot sailboat in 8 hours and its clean and smooth. You will still need to discuss and it and using epoxy microballoons mixture to smooth out between some of the catch the cuts around the through halls at cetera where the gel machine cannot effectively cut

[Bohemian17]

Here is a section of my endeavour 42 hull where the gel peel guy did not cut off the paint . He did this to show me that the entire gel coat surface including the skin coat which is the first layer of fiberglass matt had "hydro d". Basically like the shell on a hard boiled egg. I easily removed the section shown with a scraper. Do your homework before you choose which path to take.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by Bohemian17

If you have a lot of blisters blasting is a waste of time. If there are a lot of blisters you need to gel strip the boat. Be careful or you will waste a lot of money. For every blister you see there are ten more. First pressure wash and look to see if you are popping blisters. If no blisters then soda blasting is a decent method. Just a heads up.

Having just gone through a soda blast and barrier coating, I have to say that this advise is true as long as you have "a lot" of blisters. By a lot, meaning maybe hundreds or thousands. A couple dozen blisters can be easily handled by you. No big deal. However, do not underestimate the cost of letting your blisters dry out over months on the hard. We pay quite a bit for being on the hard.

On the other hand, I can speak to the fact that stripping the bottom off and laying up new layers, then barriers, may not be effective either in the long run: our previous owner had this done about 15 years ago and we still had some blisters. In addition, the soda blasting did strip off much of the older barrier coat that did not adhere well to the bottom.

Also - do not skip the fairing process while you can. I didn't fair because the hull was already pretty fair but I did identify some areas that I wish I had faired.

[AtlanticGreenPro]

We soda blast and Farrow System blast a lot of boats and we work with some of the best marinas between New York City and Baltimore MD.

Peeling a boats Gel Coat is a last resort and should only be done if the boats bottom is covered with blisters or has a huge blistering problem from being left in the water for a few years at a time like the boats we see that come up from warm climates like those from the Gulf or from Florida.

If you're going to leave your boat in the water for 2 or 3 years at a time then there's a good chance you're going to have blisters... The longer the period of time the boats in the water the greater the likelihood that you're going to have more and larger blisters.

Truth is it's best to only keep your boat in the water 9 months out of the year and the other 3 mounts on the hard so you boats hull can dry.

If you have only a hand full of blisters and that what 99.9% of the boats have... then remove the paint by either hand sanding or find someone who does quality media blasting like soda blasting or Farrow System blasting.

Then fair out the blisters and fill the blisters with a quality marine epoxy, followed by a good barrier coat and then by a quality ablative.

Peeling a boats bottom is a last resort and will devalue your boat by 50% or more when it comes time to sell it.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by AtlanticGreenPro

Peeling a boats bottom is a last resort and will devalue your boat by 50% or more when it comes time to sell it.

This is a lie. Many brokers will tell you a boats value has increased because its been peeled, dried, faired, and barrier coated professionally. Older boats which have not had this done yet are worth less. Pretty hilarious telling cruisers they should haul out for three months a year too.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by minaret

This is a lie. Many brokers will tell you a boats value has increased because its been peeled, dried, faired, and barrier coated professionally. Older boats which have not had this done yet are worth less. Pretty hilarious telling cruisers they should haul out for three months a year too.

Forget cruisers. We're not cruising at present and the boat only comes out for a week every four years!!!! There is no way I can put it on the hard for three months a year, I'd go broke in no time flat!!!!!!

[HappyMdRSailor]

Have not used these guys myself, but have heard nothing but good things about these guys for a DIY yard... from 2-3 different sources, for reasonable rates and policies...

Cabrillo boat yard - Long Beach - Home

[Richard5]

Channel Islands in Ventura County.

[Bohemian17]

Soda blasting and farrow blasting with medium was excellent way to prepae a boat to be barrier coated and painted. If you see a whole bottom with a hundred blisters visible that means there's about a thousand. Anything short of properly peeling the boat repairing it with epoxy and barrier coating and painting is just a band aid. At that point the entire skin coat on the boat has been hydro d and has moisture trapped behind. Unfortunately in every business there are guys that are really good peeling boats and then there are people that are terrible. Some boats even need to be peeled twice but oftentimes owners don't want to pay for it to be done properly so they get one peel done and then they do all this work on the bottom and still end up with the same problem.

[AtlanticGreenPro]

Originally Posted by minaret

This is a lie. Many brokers will tell you a boats value has increased because its been peeled, dried, faired, and barrier coated professionally. Older boats which have not had this done yet are worth less. Pretty hilarious telling cruisers they should haul out for three months a year too.

A Lie? I just got off the phone with a broker who we blast boats for and he said he you have to pretty much give peel bottom boats away and he wont touch them.

I'm sorry, but here in the Northeast part of the United States everyone pulls their boat in the winter... so I suppose we're kind of use to paying to keep it on the hard when the water's frozen.

I also suppose that's one of the reasons most all of the boats we Farrow blast blast don't have blisters.

Normally, it's rare if I ever see blisters... then again it's rare I ever see pealed boats.

By the way.... What's the cost to peel and vinyl ester resin the bottom on say a 36' sailboat?

[goboatingnow]

if you have a few blisters , why bother doing anything, The Osmosis bogeyman has moved on. Most barrier coats fail cause the problem is already too late and the toxic soup is in the laminate.

A few years ago everyone was doing "Gelshield" then people got sense and realised the boats wasnt going to fall apart.

dave