Peel-Away
We bought our '83 H30 4 years ago and when they pulled the boat for the winter the folks at the marina said we won the award for the worst bottom paint. A bunch of sploches, areas where there was no paint, other areas where 5-7 coats were still attached. Not wanting to spend 2-3 weekends sanding down the bottom and all the hazardous dust etc that that created, we investigated Peel-Away. Bought a 5 gallon tub (comes with the "paper" you place on the hull after putting on the product, but not enough. We found that freezer wrap paper works just as well, slick side towards the hull) We rolled Peel-Away on but I would suggest a wide brush so you can get a thicker coat on the hull. Put the paper on the hull and wait 24 hours to peel everything off. It took my wife and me 4 hours to "paint" and paper the hull w/ peel-away. The directions say you can peel it off in 12 hours but 24 is much better. Peel-Away should really be called scrap away. As you peel the paper have a 2-4" putty knife with you and you can scrape most if not all the paint off. Wear shoes you don't care for as they will become caked with the Peel away droppings. As you are peeling take a break every 4-6 minutes and go back over the areas you have just peeled with a hose and wash the area with a green nylon scrubbie. You should be looking at a bright clean white hull. You DON'T WANT THAT STUFF TO DRY ON THE HULL. Its a bear to get off. After all done wash the hull again to get the areas you might of missed. It took us about 9 hours to take the stuff off, and we had a clean bright bottom. We did it in one weekend started Sat morn and was done Sun afternoon feeling quite proud of ourselves. Peel Away might seem expensive at $135+ for a 5 gal pail but it was well worth it!! By the way we still had some peel away left so used it to take layers of varnish off of teak. That worked good too.Now that you have a clean bottom, clean it with the dewaxing stuff, lightly sand it (120-200 grit) to give it a little "tooth", and put a barrier coat on the bottom. Whose ever product you use, follow their directions explicitly. Now bottom paint, that is a personal choice but we use an ablative since there is "no" build up. Our first coat we call our signal coat (red). Our second coat is blue. When ever the red starts showing we know it is time to paint the bottom again. Another nice thing about an ablative is my prep for a new coat of paint is a water hose and a green scrubbie. I wash and scrub the bottom and in essence I have just created a new clean surface ready for painting once it drys.I know this was long but I hope it helps.Mark WhitsonS/V Tequila