Ask a silly question ....

Chap wandered over this morning and asked me "What's the best way to remove old antifoul then?"

I pondered for a moment or three and replied ...

"Well I've tried expensive chemical stripper. It's slow, hard work and, well, expensive"

"I've tried home made chemical stripper. It's slow, hard work and dangerous"

"I've tried powered scrapers. It's slow, hard work and risks damaging the gelcoat"

"I've tried tungsten carbide scrapers. It's slow, very hard work and the blades don't last long"

"And I've come to the conclusion that the best way to do the job is ..."

...

...

...

"Pay somebody else to do it!"

Jesting aside, my conclusion a week ago that another couple of days would see the job done was wildly inaccurate. After another four long days with chemicals, scrapers and sanders, I've made progress but I'm far from finished getting the hull back to a good base. The port side is done to about midships, but I've got the beamiest stretch still to scrape and sand whilst the starboard side is back to the stubborn stuff

The original plan would have had us back in the water today. Realistically, I can't see it happening for another month. Again realistically I won't be surprised if getting the hull back to a sound base takes another couple of weeks and then we've got to make good any scratches and dings before applying a new epoxy barrier followed by undercoat and whatever brand of antifoul I finally decide to waste my money on

Something will have to be done, at least short term, about the topsides paintwork too. (The "topsides" is the area of the hull between the waterline and the deck by the way). I'm hoping I can touch up the numerous scratches and dings and polish it up to a reasonable appearance at least for now. Ideally I'd strip the paint off the topsides as well and repaint the whole lot but there's neither the time nor the money to do that this year

And then we need to rebuild the stern gear. Everything is ready now for it all to start going back together so I'll make a start on that next week when my now permanently aching shoulders can't take any more scraping and sanding!

It's a family weekend this weekend so it'll be Monday afternoon before I get back on it. There's not been a lot of point posting daily blog updates as it's a dull and boring job which would make dull and boring reading