Soda Blasting bottom of hull

[corksailor]

My 2003 Sun Odyssey35 is showing the layers of antifoul and patches underneath.Debating a sodablast but apparently have to re-epoxy after the job .Costs seem huge Any comments or has anybody had it done?

[sailbleu]

I am currently removing all the AF on my 40DS with a scraper.
I took the advantage of our Indian summer we are experiencing in Europe at the present to get the job done.

Sodablasting , sandblasting and so on are fairly expensive procedures , you probably need the wrap the boat in a tent to save the surroundings I presume.

My advise , dont use AF removers , they promise alot but deliver little. Been there done that.
I started my project to end up re-epoxy the hull with a few coats and maybe copper coat everything at the end.
I haven't decided yet because my previous rudder copper coat experiment has failed.
I used a 1 on 1 ratio , meaning an equal amount epoxy resin and copper powder but the result after 4 months bathing is sad.
The rudder was loaded with fouling.
Perhaps the ratio was too low , or maybe it's due to the fact that I forgot to roughen up the surface of the rudder to expose the copper in the epoxy. Who will tell.


But this is getting off topic now .
So buy the sandvik (bahco) scraper , lots of elbowgrease and you will manage to the clean the hull in one week.

Good luck

[maby]

Was that with genuine Coppercoat, or were you mixing up your own equivalent from off-the-shelf materials?

[sailbleu]

That was a home brew.
But the copper powder (copperoxide) was the real stuuf I was told.

Regards

[Deleted]

I just got done having all previous antifouling from my 03 SO35 removed down to the gel coat. It was done with a combination paint strippers and sanding. It was horrendously expensive due to the number of hours it took. I read an article in Practical Sailor, www.practical-sailor.com/issues/37_10/features/sodablasting_101_10610-1.html that quoted $1,600 US for soda blasting. Compare this to the $4,500 US I just paid to do the job by paint strippers and sanding, soda blasting seems like a bargain.

Regardless you’ll need to reapply the epoxy barrier coat. However, since the SO 35 hulls are solid hand-laid glass hull that have vinylester resin in exterior lamination layers, a single epoxy coat would be fine.

[sailbleu]

Hi James ,

I'm to about to drive off to the yard this morning it's 10:00AM now , and get the final patch done , the remaining 2 m² .
To give you an idea , I started the scraping on monday , with an average of 4 to 5 hours hard labour (rest pauses included) each day . But within this timeframe I'm also talking about all the experiments (AF remover) , highpressure threatment and so on I performed.
Leaves me after today a complete sanding of the hull so all the AF patches are gone and the gelcoat/gelshield is rough enough to receive the epoxy resin.
Depending on my decision wether to coppercoat or not , I will apply at least 2 to 3 epoxy coats, wet in wet and finally get 2 coppercoats on top of the 2 previous layers , or a plain Hempel selfpolishing antifouling coat on top of 3 epoxy layers.
I'm really not sure what direction to turn to at the present.
I was hoping for some feedback from other boaters with the same issue.
In fact , what are your intentions ?

Maybe this is worth a separate topic , meaning that I kind of approached my hull-cleaning project in a scientific way.
I used different kind of procedures and took pictures to eventualy share it with a local sailor community since I have a interesting discussion going on a board in my own language.
Maybe I'll translate the whole collection and put it on this board for the hints and tips section.

I'm not sure my hull is also a vinylester resin product , in all honesty I would think not.
Although there is a grey gelshield coat (pansercoat of some sort) which I continiously compromise with the scraper.

Regards

[sailbleu]

James ? Still alive ??

Regards

[Deleted]

Hey Sailbleu: My yard recommended 3 coats of epoxy if the hull was not made with vinylester resin. Since mine was, we went with one coat as I mentioned. On top of that we had 2 coats of Pettit Trinidad SR which is a hard, high copper antifouling. We also put a third coat around the water line.

Is this what you wanted to know?

- James

[sailbleu]

Hello James,

yes it is.
I was hoping you would also go for coppercoat , that way I could get some feedback from other people so I can finally make up my mind on whether to coppercoat or not.
My rudder experiment gave me mixed feelings you see.

Regards

[maby]

Sept 30, 2011 15:54:06 GMT sailbleu said:

That was a home brew.
But the copper powder (copperoxide) was the real stuuf I was told.

Regards

I think the question is not so much the copper as the epoxy. The Coppercoat guys claim that they use a special epoxy mix that is designed to degrade slowly - standard epoxy is designed to protect the thing it's covering which, in the case of your ersatz Coppercoat, is the copper.