This year I decided to totally strip the years of antifoul off. I decided I was too old and lazy to go for the mechanical scrape. I used Diluent and Stripit. Stripit was by far the better of the two. I'm mot really sure how many coats were on but I suspect at least four. I applied both next to each other as a rough comparison and applied as per instructions. They both need to be put on very thickly, almost plastered on and left for 24 hours in damp conditions. I then powerwashed them off. The Stripit took off virtually all the antifoul down to what I suspect was the primer in one coat other than a few odd places where a second light attack removed the rest. The Diluent need a second heavy coating virtually all over to finish the job off. They left a smooth finish which appears conducive to repaint. Care is neede in their use as both are caustic and the recommendation of at least gloves is needed as this hard mans fingers found out.Silly boy. I am contemplating repriming just to make sure before re-antifouling, but although the finish looks slightly powdery it does not come off with the finger test. I'm still contemplating the matter.
Mick Pindar
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 My tame expert suggests lightly wet and drying to rekey the surface and then repriming to ensure that any residue is sealed in and therefore avoid any incompatibility problems. Hope this helps your deliberations!
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Cathy
What is the tame expert's suggested position of the waterline. I've got the real waterline from the crudy mark on the boat when it came out. Do I paint the antifoul up to this mark or x inches ( still imperial ),x being the experts suggested height above it or go to this mark and paint a boot topping x inches above? The real water line does not seem to agree with the previous waterlines which is probably par for the course.
Look forward to the pundits or anyone else's thoughts.
Have taken your previous advice aboard and am in the midst of doing it weather permitting. On reflection I think you were right.
Looking forward to your reply
Mick Pindar.
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Ah, we've had quite a lot of discussion about this before. Just had a quick trawl through the forum, but couldn't immediately find it. But have a look if you've got time! There was a discussion about putting vinyl strips on for boot top, when all the practicalities were covered.
Really it depends what kind of antifoul you are using. If you are using hard, it is fine to do the boot top the same. If you are using soft, you probably don't want to, as it will rub off on the dinghy when you are boarding, for example. We used to put a Trilux (hard antifoul) boot top above Optima (soft a/f) under water. This year we have done the whole lot in hard racing.
If you are not too sure where the waterline is, you can put a slightly over-deep hard antifoul boot top this year, and next year you will be able to see exactly where the line should be, and can paint over some of it if you need to, providing you are using compatible products.
Or of course you could use vinyl strip....
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Was encouraged by Mick P's use of StrypIt (I assume it's the Rustin's stuff), until i read the dreaded Health n' Safety data sheet, warning that it 'will degrade and cause severe damage to rubber, linoleum, fibre glass, vinyl floor covering, perspex and plastic'.
Aaargh. Are Rustin's just being cautious, or should I be worried? Is there a body of knowledge 'out there' on such questions as: 'if I DO use StrypIt, how long is it safe to leave it applied to 1973-vintage gelcoat before it eats that?'
Regards from the not-very-brave
Nick Hallam
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We have used International's Interstrip, which is specially formulated to work safely on fibreglass and did a good job (a bit messy, but I think that applies to all strippers)
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 Talking of antifouling. I am quite curious of Coppercoat. Anyone with first-hand experience to share?
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Nick,
Strippit is claimed to for removing antifoul although where it over-covered the gell coat it looked as if it had marked it a little bit. It might do more if left on much longer but twenty four hours seems to be more than enough in my circumstances and it was washed off with the power washing. I suppose if you are really worried a wash down with vinegar would probably neutralise any caustic left on which I would doubt if well power washed. Again I would definitely use protective gear especially rubber/nitrile gloves. My gell coat may be a little tender as the boat was re-gelled last year. A good job it was too. Repairs are easier than if a paint like awlgrip has been used.
Mick Pindar
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Any advice for stripping Trilux a/foul off aluminium hull and cast iron keels?
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 Like Magnus I have been wondering about Coppercoat and would be very interested in amy experiences.
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I have Cuprotec which I think is almost identical to Coppercoat. I hauled out last week primarily to change the anodes but also to have a look what 1 year sitting in the water had done.
I can safely say that there wasn't a single thing on the bottom, bar a little bit of slime which I sure is down to the fact that she hadn't been out sailing in weeks (sniff sniff, combo of weddings and bad weather!) One quick blast out always seemed to leave the bottom clean (what you can see from the pontoon at least)
Very happy that the only below waterline work to be done was change the anodes.
Ask me again next year if it works for more than 1 year :-)
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Interesting to hear about Cuprotec. It would be great to hear too from anyone's who tried the Teflon based antifoulings.
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 | TMS Poloshirt winner |
14/08/07 12:30
Beware of Teflon Antifouling paint.
Once applied you are stuck with it, you'll never get other paint to adhere over it and its almost impossible to remove, it is also useless as antifouling paint!
However it can give a nice slippery bottom for racing if you don't mind a scrub every 3 weeks!
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| Edited: 14/08/07 12:30 |
Thanks, David, for the info. I will stay well away !
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Have to lift out our newly acquired Feeling 286 in a few weeks for a number of jobs and intend to address the historic accumulation of antifoul at the same time. I have found the blogs on the subject very interesting but one aspect that hasn't been covered is the time needed to strip off the old antifoul.. I appreciate that there is an element of "piece of string" about it, but can anybody suggest how many weekends I should allow to strip down and re-antifoul the hull of a relatively small yacht...? Any comment would be appreciated.
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My technical expert (husband) says it depends how hard you work! It took him two weekends and a week of evenings in between to get all the antifoul off our 40 footer - single handed. He did the hull by scraping and the keel and rudder with stripper. The two of us working together can get a single coat of primer or antifoul on in a couple of hours. So the answer is that given good weather, you should be able to strip down in a couple of weekends and reanitifoul in a couple more, unless you find you have lots of filling and fairing to do, in which case it will take longer. Hope that helps! And good luck.
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Thanks Cathy, - please pass on the same to your "technical expert". I am impressed by his dedication to the cause of a clean hull but I presume this was in preparation for your Fastnet run? My brother has recently cleaned down the hull of his 26' Colvig Sailor and advised that three weekends of hard work was probably required so there appears to be a measure of agreement here! On the basis of comments in various blogs, I was attracted by the possibility of using one of the gels, probably Stripit. However the boatyard where our boat will be lifted out were cautionary, suggesting that the process will be very 'messy'. Do you think they are being a little 'dog-in-the-manger' on the subject? Cheers
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Stripper is horribly messy! If you have any green credentials, you must spread something on the ground (the big polythene sheets you get from B and Q etc) to collect all the (highly toxic) scrapings for disposal. Otherwise it treads everywhere, which is presumably what the boatyard is afraid of. An expert at International recommended wrapping the stripper in clingfilm after application. This not only makes it work more effectively (prevents the solvents evaporating, presumably) but also pulls the antifouling off in a more easily disposed of form! Protective gloves, goggles etc are essential.
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We have now stripped off the old antifoul - in the main using mechanical scrapers. However we did use a chemical stripper on the heaviest layers close to the waterline. Two applications were required - this helped but didn't eliminate all the hard work as our aching shoulders attest! Overall the exercise took 25 -30 man/woman hours. We were able to sweep up and bag most of the scrapings, so our environmental consciences were protected .... in part. With gelcoat exposed, it appears that the old anti-foul had been applied a good 6ins above the line dividing polished and "matt" finished hull. It is tempting to assume that this line defines the waterline - is there a standard way of telling where the waterline should be while the boat is out of the water, of course?
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