If Stan "Paintboy" replies, whatever he says is gospel, but in the meantime here's what I did and it's worked well for me. My boat had several layers of old ablative paint when I bought her. It was a mess and rubbed off on everything. Not the best stuff for a trailered boat. I stripped it off using Peel Away, a paste type product that softens the old paint so you can scrape it off with a plastic scraper. No toxic dust from sanding, but still a messy time consuming process. The gelcoat underneath was stained, scratched, and ugly, so repainting was in order. Since my boat is mostly trailered, with only occasional longer periods in the water, I chose VC Performance Epoxy. It's a hard shell 2 part epoxy paint that is extremely durable and fast, containing a teflon component in the mix. It has no anti-fouling properties, however, so if the boat is in the water for over a month or so I have to scrub off the slime with a sponge pad. If I had to have anti-fouling I would use VC-17. It's fast and durable, but probably not suitable for full time salt water moorage. FWIW, Larry On Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:29:32 -0700 (PDT) W David Scobie <wdscobie@yahoo.com> writes:

rick:

i can't remember from prior posts if you keep your boat in-water for extended periods?

if you don't keep your boat in-water for more than than about a month at a time consider one of the hard and slick bottom coats. larry yake uses this type of product on his M17, CORN DOG. i'm not sure the product or the details on how it stands up to long periods in water. larry does keep his boat in fresh water during the summer when he is not sailing the san juan and northern canadian waters.

larry please share details and this time i'll save your information for my own future boat projet as 'what you did' is what i'm going to do when i decide to get under my M17 SWEET PEA and remove all the flaking bottom paint.

:: Dave Scobie :: M17 #375 SWEET PEA - www.m17-375.webs.com :: Sage Marine - www.sagemarine.com

--- On Fri, 3/23/12, Rick Davies <jdavies104@gmail.com> wrote:

...

My boat has ablative copper bottom paint that is over five years old, and beginning to wear off. One boatyard has suggested removing it with a pressure washer that uses very hot water rather than sanding. Does anyone have any experience with this, or comments as to whether it's a good idea or not? Any possibility of damage to the surface? Would it still have to be sanded before painting?

Thanks,

Rick M17 #633 Lynne L