Bottom paint removal?

[muskyfins]

I recently bought my first boat that will stay in the water all season. (May 1-Oct 1). My home waters spawn growth like an alien life form trying to take over the planet, so I am planning on bottom paint. The previous owner had bottom paint and what I believe to be barrier coat below that. It is in good condition. Very well adhered to the bottom. There are a couple of small areas (1?-2? diameter) that the paint is flaked off. I was planning to remove all (either soda blast or DA sand) and start over. But in another thread, @AllDodge made a comment that got me to thinking-do I even need to remove all the old bottom paint? Could I just power wash the old paint, sand any ?bad? areas. Add some barrier coat and repaint? I?m not really looking forward to all that sanding, and if I can avoid it without causing problems down the road???

PS-can't really post pics. She's put to bed for the winter.

 

[tpenfield]

Be careful sanding the antifouling paint . . . very toxic . . . heavy metal poisoning stuff. I would fix up the loose areas and rough up the surface on the rest and give it a fresh coat or two.

When you get to a point where you feel the bottom paint is too thick and you have a couple of weeks spare time on your hands, you can think about removing it

or farm it out, like you said.

 

[kmarine]

I agree adding another coat every few years is all you need to do. Check out super ship bottom from fort meyers Florida. My friends average 3 years per coat.