Stripping Bottom Paint

Submitted by Steve Kaminsky, owner of Nanny

Attached are some photos of the bottom stripping process on Nanny. 

We used a product called "Peel-Away". We found it to be wonderful, especially after Carolyn tried to sand the bottom to gelcoat. The Peel-Away made it much, much, much easier than sanding. But make no mistake about it, it is a time consuming project , but well worth it.

To do the entire bottom it takes at least 3 full weekends. In the end, we found it better to apply the stripping paper vertically rather than in horizontal direction shown in the pictures. When the paper is placed vertically, you are able to scrape from water-line down and use the paper to catch the soften paint. Be aware, using Peel-Away is a temperature sensitive process...the warmer the ambient temperature the better (in the 80's is just about perfect). All in all, we felt is was a very neat way of stripping paint.    After stripping the bottom, we applied 5 coats of Interlux 2000E Microplating Barrier Coat plus 4 coats of ablative paint.   Begining forward.  Keel from forward.  Above the keel.  Steve's assistant, Carolyn.

Some might complain of the cost, approximately $600.00. But we felt it was worth it. The end result, port, starboard, aft.  If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact us.