Stripping the Antifouling

I managed to visit Pachuca twice during the week.  

Bruce had wanted to avoid soda blasting the hull in to avoid pitting of the gelcoat and tried using chisels.  But after the slow pace of progress with chisels he reluctantly went to his second option, very caustic and toxic chemical strippers.

Bruce has encountered unexpected difficulty in stripping the antifouling from the lower part of the hull.  The problem is that in Port Townsend USA only hard antifouling was available and I had three coats of hard fouling heavily laden with copper laid on the hull.  This turned out to be very effective, and Bruce showed me the copper that was in the material that he had removed, but it has become a big removal problem. He has purchased yet more caustic remover and expects to finish that work by the middle of the coming week.

After 1.5 hours using a chisel

The requirements placed on me have steadily increased, and I think that I've finally reached the "bottom line". My brief is to remove EVERY bit of equipment from Pachuca.  That means emptying the quarter berths the storage under the quarter berths, the food and consumables in the cabin storage, and probably (to be confirmed) the sails in sail lockers. 

Yesterday morning I got a taste of what will be a very big job.  I spent two hours patiently extricating large plastic boxes heavy with material, ropes, tools, etc, staging them in the cockpit and platform at the top of the steps, then putting my shoes back on (had to be removed to avoid tracking antifouling into the boat), then patiently and deliberately taking each item down the steps and walking it to the trailer.  Care was of utmost importance because on mistake could cost me damage ranging from a sprained ankle all the way to a broken neck or even worse.

Using caustic stripper

Bruce at work well protected