scraping the anti-foul

[mistril]

Just had a joyful day scraping very thick anti-foul - I can confirm it is as 'orrible as everyone warns you it will be - still several more sessions to go. However, if anyone is gearing up for the job, I can recommend the Harris scraper - I bought it at Screwfix - about £8 although the crafty rascals then charge £5 for ONE spare blade. I'm still on the first edge of the double sided blade. The corners do need grinding off - I ground off about a millimetre - and that's not enough - I've still done some damage! But the more you grind off the corner, the less blade you'll have, so I suppose a balance is required. Any ideas on the fact that the anti-foul is much harder at the waterline - is this common? Exposure to light and air? I resorted to a hot-air gun to soften it.

[oceandancer]

Hi Mistril,

Go easy on the hot air gun! You can easily do damage to the gelcoat without it being visible. If you overheat it- very easy to do - it will become too brittle and subsequently crack. At the water line you probably have an overlap of the topside over underside gelcoat. it's thicker for about 30 mm or so and the topside gelcoat is anyway harder and more brittle than the underside coating. The anti foul paint oxidises here due to the presence of more oxygen and sunlight. Much better to shell out and use a proprietry anti foul stripper just for the top 3 inches or so.

Regards,

Mick

[Charles]

You're a real hero if you are doing your own antifouling. I did it the first year we owned Marguerite, having come from a 20' trailer-sailer which spent the winter in a relatively dry barn. Given the virtual absence of a keel on the LM 27, one session of lying on the cold, wet ground of the boatyard scrubbing and painting was enough to convince even a tight-wad like me that paying the boatyard to do it would be money well spent, and so it has proved! Mind you, we had paid to have all the old antifouling stripped off as part of the buying process 7 years ago and I suppose that sooner or later we will have to face up to having the present build-up removed. Perhaps that will be for the next owner to do!

Happy New Year!

Charles

[mistril]

Thanks for the thought about the hot-air gun - I was going to have a go with a stripper by way of comparison so I'll take your warning on board!
Off to Screwfix again to find a better facemask - I'm still wheezing from yesterday - cough.

[nauticalnick]

l've used a 'Parkside' electric scraper to great effect; easier on the arms etc as you just have to push the scraper along, that's of course if you have electricity available ! The blades are interchangeable and can be honed to suit.

No commercial connection as l borrowed it, l'm now going to buy one !

Nick

[oceandancer]

Hi Nick and Mistril,

I like the idea of an electric scraper. Am I right in thinking that "Parkside" is a brand sold by Lidl? They don't seem to have very consistent supplies of their central isle goodies but I'm going to keep a watch for one of these. Happily I won't be into hull scraping for a while yet but I like to be prepared.



Regards

Mick

[charles hill]

Mick - you're right - 'Parkside' is Lidl or Aldi (can you believe that some people only look in the centre aisles, and ignore all the groceries?)
Does Nick know of any stock about to appear? I've found an electric scraper by Skil - it's about £100 and I'm still debating whether to invest.
By the way, on this cold,wet,gloomy day - my best purchse in Aldi was a wheelbarrow wheel - got some strange looks at the check-out. Wot a larf.

[nauticalnick]

Hi all,

Sorry but l don't know when the next ones are available. l also look at the central aisles in both Lidl and Aldi before being dragged off for the other stuff ! We have a new Aldi (Andover) so l'll be keeping an eye open.

Also some of the Parkside kit is made by Einhull ltd, see if their website can supply one.

[nauticalnick]

Both Argos and Screwfix supply electric scrapers for under £50, one of them looks very similar to the one l used.

[mistril]

And now a follow-up to my first posting about scraping the anti-fouling! I've just got back from another session and - Hoorah! - the scraping is finished. I'm amazed to see the date on the original posting - time certainly does fly. The weather hasn't helped of course - I've actually put in six sessions over the weeks, so I suppose it's taken about eighteen hours. I've removed enough paint to fill a bin-bag - and that's a lot of paint!
I still rate the Harris scraper - I did try stripper but the temperature didn't help so it only worked slowly. It really is a mess to clean up though: at least with the scraper, you can sweep up or as I did today, hoover it all - marvellous! It's a pity that I took so long to get organised
with my 'Titan' from Screwfix. I also solved the problem of how to deal with the areas covered by the cradle support pads - the yard guys assured me that it would be fine to remove one of the four pads - er, perhaps not. So I made up a triangular support in 2*3 timber with a carpet-covered pad and lashed it into position with a ratchet strap. Very successful!
So there we are - sanding next and then some primer.

[nauticalnick]

Hi Mistril,
Job well done !

Any thoughts on what on which paint/antifoul system you are going to use ?

[mistril]

Nauticalnick!

My reply seems to started a new thread, but in case it's disappeared into thin air, I'm using Primocon followed by International's Boatguard, wehich doesn't seem to be very popular - you have to go looking for it, but it seems to work up here (Fleetwood) which had brackish water in the marina. More witterings somewhere else on the forum!

[mistril]

Latest on the anti-fouling! Scraping finished, sanded down and coat of Primocon applied - might actually be ready for a launch before April 1st - well, that's the target because the good weather starts then ................. perhaps. Rain and cold today so the Boatguard will have to wait.