Do I need a barrier coat?

[40Toes]

Vizwhiz,
I had an ablative paint on mine when I bought it. Drove me nuts as I trailered all the time at the time and I had black crap over everything from that paint. The boat stuck to bunks like glue and it was a royal pain. I sanded it down to the gel coat and waxed the hull and changed the bunk carpet. Man what a difference, it was super easy on and off the trailer and the boat performed much better in the water. It is a lot of dirty work to get the stuff off (I burned out a sander wet sanding) and you do have to be careful with the sanding. I only used the waxed hull for 1 year before I decided to slip the boat, so then it was epoxy barrier coat with a bottom paint. It hind sight I wasted a lot of time. If you plan on trailering you don't need anything on the hull so you can probably sand out some of that nastiness on that paint job quickly without worry that the hull is not protected.

[ROAD Soldier]

I got an easier way to get rid of it if you really want to. It wears off with water so you can do one of two things:
1. Use you boat until it wears off.
2. Buy a powerwasher like my honda 2600PSI one and spend all day spraying it off. Then spend all the next day spraying it off your driveway.

[vizwhiz]

2. Buy a powerwasher like my honda 2600PSI one and spend all day spraying it off. Then spend all the next day spraying it off your driveway.

Thanks for all the help everyone - I'll see if it comes off easily enough, and try to clean up a few of the roughest-looking places. If it's going to come off on its own, I'll just wear it off in the water...

And thanks again paj for letting me hijack...