MacGregorSailors.com

Time for me to mine the depths of knowledge that this forum has. Last spring I was supposed to scrap ablative anti foul paint from bottom of boat. Life got in the way. I found a local place that does soda blasting (baking soda) and the gentleman said he could do my boat for a fee. Ball park figure of $1200 which may be adjusted when he sees the boat. Do you think it will go down? This is attractive to me because I have done some hand scraping and sanding on the boat and as everyone here knows that is a lot of work. I figure it would take me two full weekends in the driveway. Plus this is a hazardous material, my neighbors and my water well do not need bad things leaching into them.
I read this is not supposed to be too detrimental to the gel coat. Is there anything I should ask the vendor, he said he has done fiberglass boats before and he has been in business in same spot for the past 6 years. I will check for complaints in CT courts and better business bereau.(Sp.) for all you good spellers out there. I am applying two differnt colors of bottom coat, something I read here, so that deep scratches show up. Interlux 2000E and the VC anti-foul top coat are the products I will be using.
I am due to take the boat to him begining of April, unless of course mother nature decides to cancel spring and lock up the boat in snow until summer. So if anyone has specific concerns or questions I should ask please pass them along.
Mike waiting for winter to start or be over. It looks like next week I will be riding motorcycle to work.

When we got the Endeavour it had blisters and had bottom paint and some barrier paint in spots. All of that had to come off. We paid a guy about $1200 to sand blast the bottom. He came highly recommended and has been doing this for years. I talked to him before we left and felt very confident using him. He is good and when done there is just a 'blush' of the former paint on the boat.

He has some high end equipment that lets him really control the removal rate and also vacuums it up at the same time, a requirement to do this in the boat yard. We got a bid of about $2500 to sand the paint off. This is on a....



....37 1/2 foot boat that has almost a full keel,so it is a lot larger than a Mac.

I'm going to barrier coat the whole bottom when we go back and apply bottom paint over that so hopefully we won't have to have this done again while we own the boat. I would use him again with no quams.

Where are you located? He is in SW Florida. Before you go with the guy you are talking to I'd get a number of referrals, If they are positive and you can negotiate the price then maybe use him. I would not do this without barrier coating the bottom after he is done and before the bottom paint. I wouldn't do it if you are trying to go back to the original gel coat unless you feel very good about him,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

Thanks for the info Sum. I am barrier coating with Interlux 200E. I live in Conneticut the don't retire too state, couple of more years and I am going to try and make that happen. We have an M which spent a lot of time in Chesapeake with PO. So really interested to see what is under the anti-foul paint. My boat spends more time on trailer than I want. I should move it up into driveway from backyard so I can work on it. The winter so far, is one that has not happened here. Hope I did not jinx myself. I am going to tow boat to this business and see what he has to say. I will ask for boat references about his work. Thanks for all the informative posts you do, you are an inspiration to me. Mike

moondancer wrote:.. I am going to tow boat to this business and see what he has to say. I will ask for boat references about his work...

Mike, one last thing. The guy who did my boat only does boats as far as I know and has a sailboat himself. He came to see ours and give us a quote and it ended up that the boat next to us is his and he is restoring it. We had our trailer media blasted before I put the second axle on it over in Colorado. That guy does cars, trailers, almost anything. I wouldn't of let him do the boat even if he would of been in Florida.

I don't know what the guy that you are going to does, but if he doesn't have good references on boats I would probably pass. Good luck,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

I've looked at the baking soda blasting on-and-off for years when I was in the industrial world, and if done right, would not hurt your boat. You can actually take paint off one layer at a time with it. However, there are several grades of the baking soda, just as there are different qualities of sandblasting sand. Actually, some of the "tougher" grades of the baking soda have a small amount of sand in them just to make them more abrasive, because the soda is not really abrasive. Anyway, you could have him do a small part of the boat while you're there - work something out with him - so you can watch and see how it goes, then decide if you want him to finish the job or not... Done right, the plain soda blasting won't hurt your fiberglass at all if he does it right.