On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:32:44 +0200, "Edgar"
wrote:


"Bruce in Bangkok" wrote in message
.. .
I must have the remnants of 15 years of anti fouling on the bottom so
this time I';m going to scrape it all off, prime and a tie coat and a
couple of coats of bottom paint. Probably be 5 knots faster :-)

You make it sound simple but I have taken all the a/f off a 34' boat and it
is not an experience I ever plan to repeat.
I used a paint remover that was guaranteed not to harm fibreglass and it did
not , but this meant it was not all that brilliant at dissolving paint
either.
It left behind some thin residues which I washed off with the thinners
appropriate to the a/f. We used a lot of it and although the job was done in
the open air we were seriously affected by the fumes.
Get a (really) experienced professional firm to sand blast it off in
controlled conditions. .


One of the great advantages of living in 3rd third world nation is we
have people who are virtually slaves. Paid, but very cheaply paid. And
the best part of it is that any wage that they will work for me is at
least double what they would be working for if they were home.

As an example I can hire a Thai girl to wash my boat for ten US dollar
a day, and she is happy to get it because if she works on a local
construction crew she will be making $5.00. If I get illegal Burmese
workers cut those numbers at least in half.

So we will scrape the paint off the bottom carefully down to the
gelcoat or epoxy and then sand, prime, tie coat and anti foul.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)