Gutted

I have been very busy over the past few weeks on the boat; that is between normal work, voluntary work, study and rest!

The interior is now completely gutted back to a bare hull! The waste and stuff that came out took 5 car loads to the local recycling centre where all the waste was sorted, i.e. non-recycling, wood, metal, plastics etc.

Before Interior Removal

After Interior Removal!

Rubbish Pile (to the left of boat) - 5 car loads to the recycle centre!

I have started to design the new layout for the interior after taking lots of measurements and drawing on paper to scale, and in Google SketchUp - Watch this space for the drawings!

I have also been making the decisions about what method I will use to remove the old anti-foul. Last year I tested several products with kind donations from manufacturers including International's 'InterStrip AF', Cirrus Systems RemovAll 620, the ProScraper by GelPlane, and good old fashioned hard work with a cabinet scraper. In the end the best method I found was RemovAll 620 left overnight and then scraped with the ProScraper connected to a industrial vacuum cleaner to remover all the shavings and nasty dust. I stripped all the built up years and layers of anti-foul right back to the gelcoat in one go! RemovAll 620 is also a lot more friendly to the environment and nicer to work with... it is also cheaper than the other chemical strip products and gave the best effort! This is likely the route I will take.

http://www.gelplane.co.uk/proscraper/marine.asp

http://www.cirrus-systems.co.uk/marine

RemovAll 620 on the left - International Interstrip AF on the right (Both applied using advise given by each company

One method that I am keen to try before I start the work is Soda Blasting. I will becontacting a few local companies for pricing and further information. This would be a quick method using bicarbonate of soda under pressure from a air compressor shot at the hull; it leaves a bit of dust but from what I have seen it gives an excellent finish with minimum labour. I have looked into buying the equipment myself for future projects but the cost is prohibitive at the moment.