John, Thanks for the input. I see what you mean about searching through the archives of MSOG. I am far from the 1st to go through this process. I think what I have settled on is to follow the exact directions in the Interlux guide since that is the line of products I am going to use. Basically it says that if you can coat the metal within a few hours of sandblasting, that you can use their 2000E barrier coat on it, then after that use their Watertight epoxy filler to fill voids and fair, then additional coats of 2000E to finish and seal. After that I'll probably coat the keel in VC-17. I have used that for two seasons on my Santana which is slipped here in Havasu, and for the fouling conditions found here it seems to do an outstanding job. I have been very happy with it.......Of course that's my plan today......the plan seems to change daily! Three months ago my pan was to be enjoying sailing our new 23. hahaha. Sean