Had mine done last spring
Edward, I had my 88' Catalina 30 soda blasted in the spring. Very quick and effective way to remove (in my case 14+ year of antifould). The whole bottom was done in about 5 hrs. The dowside is expensive, and messy. They used 20 of the fifty pound bags of soda on my bottom, as the old paid was thick and hard. You will need to enclose around the boat as it does make a lot of dust. Evens still, I was finding some dust inside and outside the boat for weeks. Once the blasting is done, you will need to barrier coat the bottom, as the soda does effect the gel coat and proper sealing should be done before reapplying antifoul. No matter what removal method you choose, the gel coat will be "damaged", but so does sanding and scraping. IMHO, I believe the soda is less aggressive and easiest on the bottom of the abrasive removal methods(not including chemical peels). I have heard of a new method (but have not seen)is Co2 blasing -- from what I have heard is the co2 acts as the abrasive, instead of the soda. The upside is the co2 simply melts and leaves less residue. Jeff
