Life is Like Sailing - Removing the Anti Fouling Paint

[@jeffcee9457]

Thanks for sharing I have 36 years build up on the bottom of my sailboat.About to start that project

[@lifeislikesailing]

Good luck and I hope it goes well. :)

[@davidh7268]

Totally agree with Jamie, I went the stripper route on a O'Day 19, and ended up with sanding...hindsight I prefer sanding to stripper and day, thanks for the great video and BTW great job Jamie she looks beautiful and not showing her age at all. :) It always been my experience of owning wood and fiberglass boats the ratio of actually using the boat to working on it is about 10 hours work 1 hour sailing.

[@Dougyelnats]

What a labor of love, Thanks for sharing

[@lifeislikesailing]

A sailboat sure is a labour of love. :)

[@enerzise3161]

I enjoyed the video very much. He seemed very friendly. One of my jobs back when I was younger was to use Airplane Paint Stripper to strip corvettes and sometimes strip the gel-coats off from aluminum car rims. The only job that I think was worst was when I took a job to scrape the floor of an undercoat bay for a Dodge Auto Dealership. It was about 4 or 5 inches thick in some places.

[@lifeislikesailing]

+enerZise That sounds like some dirty jobs!! Yes, Jamie was very friendly and it was super great that he let me make the video to share with you all!

[@SGMCCOLLEY]

Thanks for the video - a really good one. Usually when I see bottom work here on KZbin, you get a look at the bottom pre-prep, a quick peak midway though the job if your lucky - then the finished result and someone telling you how hard it is all along the way. With your video, I actually saw someone removing paint! I now have an idea about what that is like - at least when stripper is used. Thanks a lot! I appreciated this video as well as your rigging setup videos VERY MUCH!

[@lifeislikesailing]

Hi Stephen! Thanks for the nice comments and glad that you liked the videos! I agree that actually seeing the process in action is better. :) Although I have to give Jamie all the credit for the hard work done as I only had to hold the camera and press the record button for this one.. haha

[@buryitdeep]

Thanks both for an informative video.

[@lifeislikesailing]

+buryitdeep You are welcome! Glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@SailLife]

Awesome video, Alfy :) I enjoyed it very much! Boy, that did not look like a fun job. Good thing the previous owner of my boat did a reasonable job of cleaning the bottom ;)

[@lifeislikesailing]

Thanks Mads! I don't know if there is an easy way to get 30+ years of bottom paint off? haha If I ever purchase a bigger boat, one thing I will look at closely is how much bottom paint has been put on! haha

[@SVSouthernCross]

Very useful info Alfy, Thanks. I have 39' and 32 years of paint. I hope its been stripped before! if not I'll do as your friend said and sand it! Scraping that slime off looked miserable. I will unfortunately be doing the bottom next year. Thanks for sharing!

[@lifeislikesailing]

Glad you liked the video! The first haul out I did with my current boat was the same scenario! At least 20+ years of bottom paint! I used scrapers and sanding to get mine back down to the gel coat. Was a lot of work, but the end result looked similar to Jamie's. Good luck with getting that big job done! :)

[@legend343]

Yep I'm currently doing this very same job on a 34' long keel boat and man it ain't fun. Scraping with environmentally friendly stuff too but doesn't seemed to be as good his..... I may well go over to sanding a little earlier than I'd thought... Tired arms, back, shoulders, knees.. Warren s/y Legend

[@julianbutcher9924]

Dustless Blasting the bottom paint works really well ... check out the Dustless Blasting service providers in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island. It's effective and efficient.

[@lifeislikesailing]

I'll have to check it out! Thanks!

[@familykeepersca]

Thanks, After watching your work, I really doubt if I should do my 36 foot's bottom! What a hard work can expect.

[@lifeislikesailing]

Not a fun job.

[@Ilsabug1]

Great vid and thanks for posting. Let us know how things go for Jammie and his boat. Our Dufour 31 is a 77 and that is the job we have ahead next season.

[@lifeislikesailing]

Glad you liked the video! As far as I know Jamie just has to put the paint on the bottom now so he is likely close to being finished by now. :) I will haul my boat out next week, but thankfully it will be an easy bottom coat job as I stripped mine down a couple years ago. :)

[@gldsmith61]

WOW that looks like a big project, but I am sure it is well worth it. Thanks for the vid

[@lifeislikesailing]

Bottom painting is always the dreaded job on a boat! haha

[@franknewcomb5299]

Damn, he did a fantastic job on that thing .

[@lifeislikesailing]

+Frank Newcomb That product seemed to do a good job. :)

[@jlfelber1]

The support struts cover part of the bottom surface of the boat. There must be a step of repositioning the struts. Is the crane needed for this, or do you just add new struts near the existing ones and then remove the existing ones?

[@lifeislikesailing]

Yes the supports need to be moved at some point so you can get to the areas that were previously covered. I have never seen a crane used to reposition the supports, you just add new supports next to the existing ones and then removed the original supports. At this marina they prohibit the boat owners from doing this and the yard staff are the only ones allowed to move the supports (for obvious safety reasons).

[@nothingstrue5333]

This is a very nice informative video, as we all know stripping bottom paint (especially 3 or 4 coats) is never an easy task. It seems to do a great job. Did that stuff seem to take off a flew layers at a time or was it one layer at a time than re apply to get another layer down? Thank you!

[@lifeislikesailing]

+Nothings TRUE Yes it is always nice to find out about new products. :) I think from what I can remember Jamie telling me, it varied regarding how much it took off. Probably things that affected that were the hardness of the layers of paint and the amount of stripper applied plus how long the stripper was on for and the temp outside at the time....etc, etc. Glad you liked the video!

[@chrisjustiniano2254]

That was a great video, Alfy. Thanks for sharing this. I have my boat sanded (light) with a new coat of paint every season before she gets splashed. I was wondering, do you paint your prop? Every season, I remove the prop, then clean and polish it. But last year I tried spraying zinc coating on it to prevent fouling. I didn't notice any difference in the amount of marine growth. What do you do?

[@lifeislikesailing]

Glad you liked the video! I have never painted or coated my prop so I wouldn't be able to comment on the difference. I haven't found the prop to be an issue so I guess that is why I have never thought of trying something new. Of course now that I keep my boat at a marina that is in fresh water, things like painting the bottom and zincs are way less an issue! :)

[@behrpalomo4479]

I saw another guy using "Marine Safety Strip " then covering it in plastic which seemed a good method; keeps it from drying out therefore whatever chemical process is happening keeps going.

[@lifeislikesailing]

Good tip! Thank you!

[@Wolf-xi4if]

So how does he get the areas under the pads and chains? Is that something where you can add one at a time to reposition them or dose the boat have to be lifted? As with and paint / finish removal job, regardless of how you do it, it usually quit messy! :-D

[@lifeislikesailing]

New supports are just added next to the original supports, then you can remove the original ones. Yes no matter how you get it done, it is one of the less-desirable jobs that needs to been done! :) haha

[@pgreenx]

can you guys tell me if the boat supports ever fail? I don't think I could sit under there for a long time...

[@lifeislikesailing]

They shouldn't fail if they are set up correctly. :) For any repositioning of the supports I recommend letting the yard staff do it.

[@MacSilvey]

How do you get the spots that the stands covered?

[@lifeislikesailing]

Mac Silvey If you check out my Haul Out series you will find out how those spots are reached.

[@MacSilvey]

Working my way through your videos, I'll get to that one asap. These vids are awesome!

[@MaverickSailing]

So do we get to see the finishing of the bottom in the next video? Thanks for sharing Alfy.

[@lifeislikesailing]

Well the bottom paint isn't actually going on for a while yet so I don't know if I'll get a video clip of that. lol

[@MorseAlphaExpeditions]

i just love Canadian accents!

[@lifeislikesailing]

Glad to hear you love them rather than hate them! haha

[@jchase5408]

Teresa, I would definitely say the same about "East Coasters"... ;-)

[@lifeislikesailing]

That is true Charles Cain! :)

[@jg-xx8oh]

nice video fellow Canadian land locked Winnipeg lol

[@lifeislikesailing]

Glad you enjoyed the video all the way from Winnipeg! :)

[@camoskill]

I do believe the title should read Anti, not Anit, Alfy! Great video though! Boats are fun, but they are lots of work.

[@lifeislikesailing]

I saw that...trying to do to many things at once is my excuse this time. haha

[@camoskill]

Its easy to miss small mistakes! I do it all the time! Love the videos, keep them coming!

[@lifeislikesailing]

CDN Welding Some days I'm sure I could make big mistakes just as easily. haha Glad you are still enjoying the videos! :)

[@tWoforgamenot1]

cool

[@Bloxygen]

Preserve leftover finishes using a heavy inert gas blanket. See www.bloxygen.com/ for details.

[@olegkazakov6202]

Look .cup brush Megaloder. Video

[@olegkazakov6202]

20 video

[@hanskrueger8186]

Man stick with the sander!!!

[@lifeislikesailing]

lol

[@hamsterg0d]

Ehh! A 27 footer is looking better after that. Interesting soy paint remover.

[@lifeislikesailing]

Yes, I never thought a soy-based product would strip paint! lol

[@charlescain7962]

Sailing ain't for sissies.