Ernest Ashley
Member
Thought I would start a little discussion about the hull below the water line. I am in the process of stripping the many layers of bottom paint acquired with our new-to-us 383. I have already learned my lesson that I should have had it soda-blasted but I had no opportunity to arrange that before our next season and the bottom paint was flaking off. I have essentially stripped the whole bottom using caustic stripper (the kind with a paper cover) and it did a great (but still expensive and god-awful) job of taking about 8-10 layers of paint off. The product I used was not supposed to take off any epoxy barrier coat. Well, it seemed to do that but one last layer appears to be an epoxy-based paint and is a SOB to get off. I would have left it on but again it flaked in spots and I noticed the underlying hard-as-nails epoxy layer had a glossy finish in some (well, quite a lot of) places. Figuring I am doing this once for all time, I am in the process of (slowly) sanding the last coat off to the dark epoxy layer and making sure it is milky not glossy. I noticed a few white dots that appear to have been repaired small gel coat blisters. My questions are: 1) What is the prevalence of gel coat blisters on 382/383/384s? 2) How does the hull appear with no barrier coat (I think my surface was "aftermarket" applied)? and 3) Any recommendations for bottom preparations (considering some areas are restricting certain anti-fouling products)? (I have considered Coppercoat;' cause I am a glutton for punishment). Thanks for this forum; always a big help.