Soda blasting..........bottom paint removal

I am interested in learning about your experience having the paint on your boat's hull removed by the soda blasting process. Have you done the job yourself, or hired it done, and what are the problems, issues, demands, etc., associated with it? Please share your thoughts, comments and/or observations if you will. Thanks.

We had this done on our IP27 and now need to have this done on our IP35. I have never heard of anyone doing this themselves, but I guess you could get all the gear together to do it. We hired the Gratitude Marina in Rock Hall, MD to do ours. The issue with having this done is that it can cut really deep into the fiberglass is the operator is too unskilled. Even that is not really a big deal, because you will apply 2 to 4 coats of Interprotect 2000 epoxy after blasted. This needs to happen to reseal the fiberglass due to all the gel coat being eroded and etched making the hull porous. After the epoxy is on, then you can apply the bottom paint as usual.

Interprotect Epoxy is really easy to use. It is two parts, you mix it up, pour it into a paint roller pan and roll it on just like bottom paint. It is easy, we did it.

Here is the Interprotect Epoxy at Defender:
www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|109...1453|311499&id=72428