# Soda Blasting Bottoms in Cape Cod Area



## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Greetings All,

After spending about 20 hours with a 3.0 Amp, 5 inch random sander and burning through 60 grit like crazy I am starting to rethink the method of operations. The yard owner in Mattapoisett suggested getting the bottom soda blasted and showed me a couple of jobs that had recently been done on much larger boats than my 36' Cheoy Lee Luders sloop. At this point, I can see another 40 or more hours of hand sanding before getting to the point of putting on a barrier coat and then a fresh bottom--egads! 

So, what experience have others had with this process, particularly as to costs? The boat is 25' at the water line and 10' at the beam. I guess it is approximately 250 sq ft with maybe 140% of that value to account for the full keel extending a good three feet below the hull or some where on the order of 350 sq ft of surface area. No doubt, there is a formula for exact calculation but for that consideration it seems likely that a contractor will charge on the basis of length rather than area.

Any recommendations on service providers?

Thanks,
Bob in Rockport, MA


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

I used this past weekend a 1.25 inch gasket scaper I bought at Sears. Wow, worked like a dream. I was able to remove many layers of paint in a short time. 3 x 9 foot area in about 1.5 hours. Better job then a palm sander I paid $9.95 for it also. What I am refering to can be found Here.


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## roywmoss (Dec 9, 2001)

Bob -- Blasting the bottom will save time, but it must be a reputable blaster who will not damage the gel coat-that usually means there will be residual bottom paint left that must be . . . sanded. The fill the pinholes- some yards broadly apply a filler "skim coat" consisting of thinned epoxy paste. After that hardens, it must be .......sanded. Then apply a coat of barrier paint. When that dries, it may reveal residual imperfections, which must be filled, and . . . sanded. When all the barrier coats are completed, prior to applying bottom (antifouling) paint, if you desire a smooth finish, the barrier paint must be ....sanded. To complete the smooth finish, the bottom paint should be sprayed on, and then burnished or wet-sanded by hand.


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## Hawkeye25 (Jun 2, 2005)

I did that work for years, and in that area. I grew up in Danvers and Salem and Beverly and also lived in Lynn, Winthrop and East Boston, always on the water and always doing boat work. The soda blasting works good, but all boatyards require adequate tarping, ground cloths, and hazardous waste removal - which sometime is no more than sweeping it up and putting it in a dumpster, but more and more becomes putting the waste in a sealed drum and paying for disposal.

From your point of view, all the work you'll have left is writing a nice, big, fat, check that might cause your hand to tremble.

The next system is chemical stripping. This works excellent, as long as you use the right stripper - that 'soy' product works great - I think it's actually called 'Soystrip', but it still requires multiple applications and lots of arm work.

An old favorite method of mine is to gather four good friends, five good scrapers with plenty of extra blades, plenty of hamburgers, hotdogs, soft drinks and beer, and put 4 $100 bills in your pocket. Depending on the paint, the boat will be done in one day, and your friends will appreciate the food, beer and C-note. An old hard paint scrapes off pretty good, a fairly fresh ablative doesn't. All you'll have left is a little touch up and sanding to prep the surface for the barrier coat.

I have done many, many, many (sometimes I have nightmares and wake up orbiting an imaginary sander over my head) and the only easy way is to pay someone else to do it.

Hawk


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Hawk, that's a good one, "an imaginary sander over my head"!!!! The sore muscles I have today are not an imagination but ibuprofen handles it just fine.

The boat is in Mattapoisett and I am in Rockport so it is about 105 miles down there from here. It is not really cool with the local ordinances for me to "camp" on the boat overnight so the trips are a bit limited. As it happens, I am very new to the NE area and am still tied to a small ranch in south central Arkansas--the boat will be my next home when the ranch is sold. For now, no friends in Massachusetts to call on.

The prospect of a chemical stripper is somewhat appealing but I have not tried using a serious scraper other than a couple of putty knives I had along. I will revisit this project on Wednesday or Thursday this week with a serious paint scraper and see how much sanding can be eliminated that way.

I was not aware of all the changes in laws and stuff since my last sail boat in the 80's. In those days we just sanded them down and left the dust and debris to nature--it was before the EPA got teeth and put a curse on Al-Gore.
However, this new sander is much cleaner than the old Makita palm sander. The old Makita earned its keep and still works to this day but it is on the ranch and I am not so the Porter Cable 5" RO sander was the order of the day, has 8 holes to siphon on dust and collect it and connects to a shop vac hose with duct tape almost as well as the ventilation system in the space shuttle.

Meanwhile, I was kind of thinking that $900 or thereabouts might be a reasonable fee for soda blasting the job and at this point I have already handled about a quarter of the bottom with 60 grit and grunt labor.

Thanks for the responses and suggestions made by all,

Bob 
Rockport, MA


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

AA3NK-

I have a couple of people I can recommend for soda blasting. I'll look up the info and send it to you via PM. You're on Cape Cod, not Cape Ann. The vendor I am going to recommend for the Cape Cod/South Coast area is very reasonably priced.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Bob - $900 ? Hardy Har Har - your not in Arkansas any more. There are several top yards in Marion, and Kingman Yacht Center and Parkers on the other side of Buzzards in Cataumet. Kingman does the work. Give them a call and talk with Jim. (508-563-7136 x 45). Usually yards blast them in the fall and do finish over winter or in the spring. These are all high quality yards maintaining nice boats (read that as Hinckleys in Marion and Bristols in Cataumet. they all have " paint sheds" but space is limited. No bargains here but high quality work. Welcome to New England.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

CaptLar-

There are several companies in the New England area that do soda blasting and are far more reasonably priced than the boat yards you mention.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

I agree. Exactly my point ! He said the boat was in Marion and, as I understood him, he wanted someone in that area. Not the place to look for bargains so unless he will transport, he is parked in probably the most expensive area possible. 
People do transport in to Kingman specifically for blast so they should be competitive to others within reasonable hauling distance. They also have the room to store outside and bring to shed for finish - big yard. One stop shopping. Not for the "do-it-yourself" guy although they do allow owners to do quite a bit as long as it is not EPA sensitive. Worth checking.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Larry, the boat is at Brownell's yard in Mattapoisett. I saw Marion for the first time this past weekend. You are not understating the degree of obvious wealth afloat around that town! Sheesh, that must be inherited money because folks who are working for a living do not moor in Marion.

The other place that was kind of impressive though not often spoken of is New Bedford. There is a serious looking sea wall arrangement and what appears to be a tidy harbor for a large fleet of fishing vessels. The wind has been abundant and steady in that area, more breeze than I am looking for in a cold place.

Yep, I am not in Arkansas anymore--may it ever be so! I am a native born Louisiana boy and Arkansas was as close as I ever got to going back home when it still mattered. It does not matter anymore. I did Katrina and Rita and Audrey long before the Corps of Engineers let the berms go down on Vermilion Bay. Things change but not so much. I can knock the bottom of this boat today just like it was done for decades and decades. I am not a hostage or victim to extortion, just a hard ass old man who does what has to get done to get it done--much like others folks on this site!

Bristol! That was THE standard to achieve when I stumbled into sailing. Now, I will actually go to Bristol, RI and see what folks have talked about.

Who-the-heck ever decided that Annapolis was the 'sailing capitol of the world?' Obviously, some folks have not seen places beyond the Chesapeke Bay.

So, how much do you think it should cost to get the bottom soda blasted?

Bob


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Bob - did you just buy this boat and it happens to be in Marion ? Do you have a mooring somewhere ?


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## chuckg5 (Jun 22, 2006)

*Rode Island Soda Blasting*

call Boone at Rode Island Soda Blasting
he's out of Newport an has a traveling soda blasting unit, a brand new one and reasonable priced. 401-835-3595


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Larry, I bought the boat last February, on the hard. Nope, no mooring and no where lined up for when she floats this summer. I barely know the names of towns and major roads around the Mass area. It is all a new adventure to me!

When the boat floats, I will make a shake down cruise to Gloucester and start to catalog all the stuff that needs to be done before making a southerly course towards the Chesapeke or somewhere a little less frosty than Massachusetts.

Bob in Rockport, Ma


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## Freesail99 (Feb 13, 2006)

Take a coastal navagation course. The practice chart ( 1210 TR ) is for that area. I feel like I've sailed there and have never been, lol.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

*Coastal Navigation Course*

You bet! Despite being a CFII and having used various charts over the years, I still look up the legend on charts to see what all that stuff means.

A long time ago I worked with a delivery skipper out of Annapolis, Henry Mox, and we took a Jenneau 39 up to Mamaroneck via Hells Gate into the LI Sound. It was a fine adventure in learning just how swift a tidal current can be. Henry's sense of situational awareness was awesome, it was a real treat to learn from him.

I'll bring along some experienced hands for the early stages of this boat learning project.

Bob


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## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

Bob,

Yes, you are definitely in the money belt of South Eastern Mass. Marion & Mattapoisett - Rockport, however, is just about the pinnacle of Old Money for the USA... Coincidence??

Kingman Marine in Falmouth (Cataumet) is highly reccomended, as is Tripp's Boatyard in Westport MA.

If you are looking for reccomendations on where to keep her, you may want to check out ActiveCaptain which (although new, and criticized elsewhere in this site) looks as though it could be VERY useful to me. Please let us (ok - ME) know where you decide to keep her, as I may be in the same predicament as you this fall when I plan to buy my boat...

I'm looking at Pearsons, which coincidentally wer built in Bristol!

Best of luck!


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

The MapTech waterproof chartbooks of the area are very useful, but in some areas, smaller scale charts would be very helpful.


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## Sailormon6 (May 9, 2002)

I just finished a bottom job on my C&C 35, and took a different approach. I had a guy strip all but a thin veneer of old antifouling paint with a power plane ($750). Then I stripped the rest of it with paint stripper specifically designed for fiberglass ($30. per gallon for about 3 gals.) 

He adjusted the plane so that he only removed antifouling paint, but he left the barrier coat untouched. The bottom had over 20 years of accumulated paint, but now it's ready to race.

I would have been afraid to let anyone strip my boat with a power plane, but I saw the guy strip a Hinkley last year and he didn't leave the slightest nick or gouge. The job he did on my boat was equally flawless. You have to be careful to choose a workman who's good at it, but it was a good alternative for me, and it saved me some money as well as a lot of hard work.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Well, I got a couple of quotes from jobbers on soda blasting, guess I will just get back on task on git-r-dun myself. 

It is not my place to set fees for folks and various services but I am not buying into the "money belt" New England area stuff either. As said earlier, I doubt that the total area to be cleaned up is more than 450 sq ft, just a plain old full keel sloop that is older than the fellows offering to blast the paint off her bottom. A low price was around $1,600 and a higher price was not much higher but then there was a much higher price from another.

It is just bottom paint and is not more than a couple of coats, certainly not the accumulation of 20 years or coat on coat. 

I went to college for 19 years and have all kinds of education, skills that don't matter anymore and I used to feel guilty billing clients at $175 an hour. Now, you can bill $500 an hour to remove paint from the bottom of a boat? That is how it seems.

The 36 foot Cheoy Lee is 25 feet at the water line. When I looked at the task it looked like about 40 to 50 hours of sanding. These days, I bill $75 an hour for IRS cases and have no guilt about the fee. If the case is complicated, well, you know... I might just buy a soda blast rig and get out of public accounting! $500 an hour sounds pretty good.

Facetiousness withstanding, in the end, it is all just work. Work is a large part of what makes life happen.

Bob


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

I've seen what it takes to do a sodablasting job... and trust me, they're not charging $500 per hour. 

You have to take in to consideration the time it takes to wrap or tent a boat, the time it takes to soda blast the boat, and the time it takes to clean up the removed paint and to rinse down the boat after the blasting is complete. Also, the costs of the materials for tenting the boat, the cost of the soda, the cost of disposing of the removed paint as required by the EPA have to be included as well. 

While $1600 is a bit higher than I would have expected, I seriously doubt that it would take them just three hours to do the job.


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## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

*Time Required*

Sailingdog, you are probably quite right, it probably takes a lot longer than three hours to set up and do the job and then clean up behind it.

Suppose it took 10 hours from start to finish, that works out to about $160 per hour, cheaper than most attorneys these days!! I think I will look into getting my own soda blasting franchise

Now about this cool weather? Is it supposed to only be in the 60s in June around here?

Bob


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

Don't worry, the weather will change in a minute...


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## willysail (Oct 19, 2010)

*New England Soda Blasting*



sailingdog said:


> CaptLar-
> 
> There are several companies in the New England area that do soda blasting and are far more reasonably priced than the boat yards you mention.


I live in Buzzards Bay and I would love to have some recommendation of companies that do Soda Blasting in my area. Marion, Mattapoisett, Fairhaven, and Wareham


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## JKCatalina310 (Nov 18, 2010)

sailingdog said:


> CaptLar-
> 
> There are several companies in the New England area that do soda blasting and are far more reasonably priced than the boat yards you mention.


SD, I know this is an old post but if you still have this list, could you PM me?

Thanks,

JK


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## captflood (Jan 1, 2011)

Greeting all. A great way of scrapping the bottom is to have a lot of used glass and to cut it into 3" squares this is then held in a peice of wood and at about 70* to the bottom dragged (never pushed) this will remove loads of paint and use up the glass and can be recycled cut again till you have done the job or run out of glass good results had in the past. Large tins of elbow greese needed now you will find dedicated sailing helpers the one to take sailing. WORK CAN SET YOU FREE ( AND THE MOON IS MADE OF GREEN CHEESE) Enjoy GO SAFE


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