ront of the transom to port. I attached 40 grit paper to my random orbit sander and got to work. In about 3 hours I was able to finish the aft port side of the boat above the water line. The paper cuts very well, but I have to be very careful to keep the sander flat and moving so I don’t cut into the wood beneath. At this point I sand until I get the majority of paint off. I’m not trying to remove all the paint because I’m using such an aggressive grit and removing all the paint would require me to spend too much time in one place. I’ll remove the remainder with finer grits of paper.The paint may contain lead so I picked up a respirator (who wants to breathe lead? Not me.). That coupled with eye and ear protection puts me in a bubble that just leaves me alone with my thoughts. I’ve found that I really don’t mind the process, but I wouldn’t want to do it if I didn’t like who I was with. I’ve split the boat into 8 sections so I’ll have a manageable job to complete each time I sand. The first section took about three hours to sand. The second section took about six hours to sand...I don't think I split the boat very evenly. About halfway through the second bout of sanding I decided to try something to speed the process. I don't mind sanding, but getting the job done to the same quality with higher speed is always preferable. I picked up a propane blowtorch and scraper to melt/scrape as much paint off as I could. I got started on the bow/starboard/above waterline section that I was working on and finished the section in two hours, one hour for scraping and one hour for sanding. All in all, it cut the paint stripping time in half, a time savings I will take.
Now, I have to say I was concerned about taking a blowtorch to a wood boat covered with flammable paint. However, books told me that it was perfectly acceptable and could be used with success if proper care and precaution were taken. That may be the case, but as I stepped up to the boat with fire extinguishers ready and NASA alerted, I thought about what would happen if the boat burned down. There would be no way that I would come out of that situation looking sane. My friends and family already think I'm a little off since I bought a boat full of holes. But if I told them I had tried to fix the boat with a blowtorch and was surprised when it burned to the ground, I would be institutionalized. So with visions of Nurse Ratched in my head, I made a tentative blowtorch swipe across the hull. Nothing happened. I went back over the paint a little slower, and the paint bubbled up a little. I attacked the bubbles with the scraper and...the paint came off! The process worked! After a bit of trial and error, I finally developed a rhythm and the paint began falling away from the hull in sheets.
I found that heating about 8 inches of the hull the width of the scraper and then scrapin
g the paint off worked well. I turned the torch off about every ten minutes to let it cool and to sharpen the scraper. By keeping a wide file in my pocket and pulling it across the blade every ten minutes, I was able to keep the scraper relatively sharp. It's really quite remarkable how quality and speed deteriorates when the scraper loses its edge. It amazes me how sharp tools really make working with your hands enjoyable. A sharp tool will glide across a wood surface, but a dull one will fight you every step of the way. Ablative paint over tar/portland cement caulking was used below the waterline and I used the blowtorch method on the first eight inches of that section. This section of the hull did not melt well and simply gummed up the scraper. I suspect this is because ablative paint is made with copper and designed to flake away relatively easily. Because of this, I abandoned the blowtorch and simply scraped below the waterline. I had to sharpen the scraper more frequently and sanding was a must, but this process was more effective than sanding alone. When I ventured below the waterline with sandpaper alone I found that the paper gummed up completely after approximately one square foot.
Thus far, I have fully stripped the port side and scraped the starboard side. Hopefully, I'll be able to sand the starboard side this weekend.
Once I got down to wood on the port side, I stepped back and looked at the caulk seams where I saw the hard chine aft to port, and sure enough, the caulk line in question was wider than I would like. It looks like I’m going to have to pull the diesel tanks out of the stern to get a closer look at the frames. Seam, wider than normal
