[kgoo]

I just took in our 1999 Shabah 202 to get some small tears in the seats repaired, and the guy commented on how strange it was that "a boat like this has anti-fouling 'crap' on the hull because it will slow down the boat".

This is our first power boat, and we thought that the black "paint" on the bottom looked a little rough compared to the rest of the sleek gelcoat on the rest of the hull, but we thought it was just a matter of polishing etc. Yeah, we're newbies.

So, how hard is it to remove antifouling "stuff", and then to repair the gelcoat underneath? Is this a huge job? Will it cost a fortune and we should just live with it as is?

Thanks for any advice!

[ShabahZ280]

Yes, it's a huge job. It'll cost tons of money to get taken off and re-gelcoated. The bad thing about applying antifouling paint is that the gelcoat needs to be roughed up, sanded, or even sandblasted to get the adhesion primer to stick. There have been some people who have tackled the project, which you can probably search for their results using the "search" function. I seem to remember some people on another forum using Easy Off Oven Cleaner, but the results looked like &h!t when it was done, until they had the boat re-gelcoated.

Are you storing your boat on a trailer, or in the water? If in the water, leave it on there. They do make some white antifouling paints, maybe when it comes time to do the next bottom job, have them do it in white, and see how that works. There's also specialized antifouling paints that are more smooth and some that are meant for trailerable boats.

At any rate, you're probably best to just leave it on there and change the paint to a more smooth finish next time.

[aquaknot]

I remember helping my dad remove the antifouling paint from his sailboat....not fun..endles hours of sanding. But, there's a newer process called soda blasting that will remove the paint safely with out harming the gelcoat. Hopefully the bottom of your boat is OK

[kgoo]

Thanks Chris and Tod:

I guess I'll leave it on there for now -- although the boat is not stored in the water, chances are that we will scratch up the hull (hopefully not worse) this summer as we figure out how to use it! So, we'll wait to invest the money until we've got our act together.

Thanks again,

Kgoo