Totally agree with Wayne .... you need a 'manly' tool: variable speed
auto body shop polisher with 3M arbor for attachment of 3M velcro
backed 7" sanding discs. A little on the heavy side but will sand off
paint like a hog rooting in a sandpile ... "get it over with and done".
A vibrating 'palm' sander takes 10 times as long to do the same job.

Then you can also use 3M knobby foam pads to buff and polish the
gelcoat too !!!!! .... or the BEST autobody polishing (with 3M
Finese-IT AND 3M Perfect-IT).
Best e-source is probably Jamestown Distributors , although you can
probably find the same thing cheaper if you look hard.

In article , Wayne.B
wrote:

On Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:32:07 GMT, "NE Sailboat"
wrote:

Is the random orbital sander the tool to use for sanding the bottom of the
boat. What model? What brand? How much to spend?

Any info on bottom of boat sanding?

If you have a heavy build up to remove or smooth, you need one of
these with a 7 inch foam pad and stick on disks:

http://www.hardwareandtools.com/invt/0566349

Anything else is just a toy.

If you are just doing light sanding (but lots of it), this is a good
tool:

http://tinyurl.com/2wdewb

Order extra disks because they can be difficult to find locally.

I own them both and would not part with either.

The small palm sized orbitals or electric drill attachments are
totally inadequate for doing a large surface like a boat bottom.