any views on the best way to remove antifoul without sandblasting???

I don't think you would want to use actual "sandblasting" unless you had a
metal boat. You could use something softer like walnut shells or baking
soda. Very high pressure water could do the job but may be as tricky as
using sand. Other options would be using an electric hand sander or
chemical stripping. I think the product mentioned in another post is called
Peel-Away. I believe there are several similar products. Practical Sailor
has tested some of these . You could purchase a reprint from them.

"Mark Le Brocq" wrote in message
m...
any views on the best way to remove antifoul without sandblasting???

Mark

It depends on several factors - type of antifoul, hull material and why
you want to remove it.

On a wooden hull with a (soft) ablative type of antifoul we do the
following:-

ANNUAL ANTIFOULING: High pressure water blaster to remove all
barnacles, weed, slime and loose antifoul. By the time the growth has
gone, so has loose antifouling. Then then just paint over the top - No
sanding needed.

SEVEN YEAR BUILD-UP; About every seven years we scrape the antifoul
back to the paint primer using a tungsten scraper with a long handle.
We literally put a broom stick on the scraper as we find the longer
handle allows you to apply more and better contolled pressure. Once
scraped, we go over entire hull with course sandpaper in a random
orbital sander (Good face mask needed). Then we reapply paint primer,
undercoat and two coats of antifouling.

Hope this helps.

Graeme
sv Leonidas