posted 12-02-2012 09:07 PM ET (US)        

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I have been wanting to get rid of the old bottom paint since I bought the boat 2 years ago.

Here is what the paint looked like. It was pretty bad and flaking off and had a bunch of craters in it.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/JCush/IMG_7402.jpg

This was after applying paint stripper and using a razor scraper.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/JCush/IMG_7410.jpg

And the final product
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/JCush/IMG_7423.jpg

and with the truck
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/JCush/IMG_7424_tonemappedp.jpg

I think I have about 30 hours in it, I will have to get it off the trailer again to wet sand and buff the bottom. Right now it is only sanded to 220 grit with a DA sander.

I am curious to see if there is a performance difference. Any ideas?

posted 12-03-2012 07:53 AM ET (US)            

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If nothing else it looks better. Do you have any blisters on the bottom? My conservative guess is you may gain 1-2 mph.

Drew

posted 12-03-2012 11:46 AM ET (US)            

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I was happy that I did not find any issues on the bottom underneath the paint. just s few scrapes here and there.

DIY project. I don't have the money to have it professionally blasted off even if there was somebody who could do nt hurt performance either
it on the island I live on! Luckily I had some time, and bad weather for boating/good weather for sanding. I used klean strip aircraft fiberglass marine stripper and a 4" razor. then I sanded it using a DA. I am glad that i did it, the boat looks much better! I am sure it wont hurt performance either.

posted 12-09-2012 10:49 AM ET (US)            

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Your post-classic Boston Whaler OUTRAGE 20 looks great, and I enjoyed the nicely composed photographs of the boat and truck. The boats from that era are aging very nicely, and I find them some of the most attractive boats around these days.

The ease at which the bottom paint comes off the hull is probably in inverse proportion to how well the bottom was initially prepared for the application of paint. I began a bottom paint removal project and found on that particular hull the paint came off quite easily. But even then it was a lot of work, and I never finished the project--I just did the transom. The removal the bottom paint from the whole hull must have been a project. Nice work!

posted 12-10-2012 02:05 PM ET (US)            

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Thanks for the kind words everyone! I was lucky to have help on the project, a friend/co-worker of mine for some strange reason came by and just got right into it! I believe that it was peeling off due to a very poor prep job. Some areas still had shiny gelcoat after I scraped the paint off! I had the boat out once, but it was much too rough to get any performance numbers at WOT. I will also be interested to see if there is any noticeable difference between the "rough" 220-grit bottom and a compounded/waxed bottom. I think it will be such a small difference and the main thing will be that the bottom will stay cleaner once buffed.

-James

posted 12-10-2012 07:07 PM ET (US)            

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Well, I finally got out and did some performance tests, I basically gained less than 1mph, and .1mpg better across the board. I picked up about 75 more rpm at WOT. Not really anything I can clearly say is truly due to the bottom condition. Last time I tested I had about 200 more lbs in the boat. Well, at least it looks better! I am pretty surprised that there wasn't a decent appreciable speed increase.

-James