A pal of mine is renovating a 1950s wooden 42-footer originally built
as a trawler but later fitted with a gaff rig.

He's currently tackling the deck, which is in a pretty rough state.
It's covered in old anti-fouling paint which is peeling and needs
removing.

It's a nightmare to sand as the surface is very uneven. And because
there are large amounts of pitch between the boards, any sanding pad or
belt becomes clogged with the stuff after just a few minutes.

I'd wondered whether it might make sense to try a power plane on it,
and just skim off a couple of mil - though I also wondered whether the
pitch might clog that up too.

Anyone got any bright ideas on how best to get it back to clean, bare
wood - preferably without spending all year over it?

Currently he's having to burn off the top layer of paint, scrape, burn
again, then try to sand.