Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.
So I'm at the boatyard and my neighbor just inherited a C30 from his Uncle. He's a total newbie. Today I'm there washing the hull and scraping the chips off the bottom into a bucket. Another neighbor is sanding with a vacuum attachment. 1st neighbor grabs his sander and starts sanding the bottom paint. No vacuum, no dust mask, no hat or goggles. I put on my dust mask and closed up my companionway. A little while later he's sneezing his head off, choking and feeling like crap. His friend asks me whether I have an extra dust mask I can lend him. I gave him one, but now the damage is done. I walked him over to the second neighbor and showed him how to do it. A picture's worth a 1000 words.... I guess I'm too much of a buttinski...
Um that stuff is beyond toxic... Might be good to get him to a hospital now, or call poison control center.
We had a club member wind up in the hospital for using a cheap dust mask where a carbon full mast respirator was more in order. The Copper toxicity didn't kick in until a couple weeks later. Make no mistake the copper can enter via your eyes as well (googles not glasses). I think the treatment was some kind of alum-mag tablets. She was sanding the ablative bottom off her boat, I think it was a 30+ footer, in the yard, outdoors, with a random orbital sander, with one of those vacuum bags, using just a dust mask. Got the notification from our VC, that the former club member went into the hospital, and the Public Service Announcement that went along with it about doing a bottom job...
I dunno, you could likely have saved a life, or at least a hospital stay. But if you really did see "blue snot rockets" like was said above, the damage might well be done.
Yep, This is one of the reasons my boatyard won't let owners do their own bottom painting anymore along with other environmental reasons. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't become state law. Too many popeye's sanding,No tarps,Spilled paint,Paint chips on the ground,Brushes,Cans and rollers left on the ground....
Scott-"IMPULSE"87'C25/SR/WK/Din.#5688 Sailing out of Glen Cove,L.I Sound
Scott, For a long time I resisted the thought that people could not be trusted to handle their own bottom painting, but after seeing the spectacle this weekend, I might be coming over to your point of view.
The whole episode frankly was a catastrophe - there were four guys (Moe, Larry, Curley and Shemp) who despite the fact that they didn't know anything about boats, they were in high gear systematically destroying this 1982 Catalina 30.
I tried to offer advice earlier that day, but there was just no getting around the rampant "know-it-all-itis". So I let the chips, literally, fall where they may.
One guy was "fixing" the "window" - he'd taken the portlight apart, and was filling the voids with 5200, sanded down the aluminum rings to "shine-em up" and filled the gap between the rubber seal and the glass with silicone.
Another guy was "tuning up" the diesel engine. I asked whether they changed the oil, removed last year's fuel and replaced the fuel filter. Nahhhh! They did start it up and ran it for awhile on the hard. Then wondered why it stalled out. No raw-water perhaps?
Another guy took down the winter cover that was blowin' in the wind - and he dropped a bunch of thin-wall EMT pipe over the side precariously close to Passage's hull and jackstands.
So by the time the last guy who'd already had a few beers got started with the sander, I'd pretty much given up, put on my own dust mask and goggles for protection, closed up the companionway and hoped for the best.
The thought that I could have prevented any of this was a fool's errand - I offered what help I could when asked (finally), but it was too little too late. The Bumpuses - hound dogs and all summarily packed up, blew town and have not been seen from since!
Today seems like the "boss" was back. The owner was there kicking butt and taking names. The C-30 has 3 glass portlights on each side and they got the rebed kits from CD and reinstalled the starboard lights. They looked better, but we shall see whether the hold up under rain later this week. They plan to change out the port side this coming week. They also changed out the engine oil, flushed the diesel line and filters and plan to bottom paint (next week after I'm splashed). Let's hope they're back on the right track now.
Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ. The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.