Ablative Above Waterline Paint ?

[karma]

Hello

I've recently bought an older sail-boat, (glass over wood), that I'm repainting.

The top side deck seems to be the regular poly- fibreglass paint, but the outside of the hull, above the waterline has a glossy green paint that "powders" when I sand it. - That is to say that it sands very easily, it's a thin coat, no thicker than a couple coats of regular regular alkyd paint, but it seems/feels more like an ablative/antifouling paint when it's sanded.

My question is this: might this be a hard ablative paint? Is there some way to tell?
And if it is an ablative, is it re-coatable by lightly sanding then adding a new hard ablative?

Thanks for any help/advise

[daddle]

Ablative and hard modified-epoxy ottom paints are not ever glossy. Must be some old aklyd. Is it the boot stripe? Or is it the same paint that extends under the water?

Ablatives can be recoated after just a light sanding or a good scrubbing with water. Hard paint with a little more sanding. Ablatives are not real happy completely out of the water. Some cracking, discoloration.

[karma]

Ok, I don't know what a bootstripe is - this paint is above the waterline. From just above the waterline, which has a black bottom-cote, to deck-level and the outside kickrail.

I haven't tried wiping it down after sanding to see if the green still comes up or if was releasing green pigment because it was freshly sanded.

I'm hoping to get a good guess as as to what it might be so I can get something new to stick to it without having to completely remove it to the glass/gel.

Not really in a position to completely remove the old paint and use something like Brightside or Perfection.

It's been such a long time since I've had to sand old paint that I'm not familiar with how powdery the old coatings come off.

Whoever did the original paint-job used some kind of red/coppery primer under the deck coat, a very thick layer, and I'm not sure if that's normal for use on fibreglass or not.

The topside of the boat has the primer, but the outside of the hull above the waterline has this green paint directly on the fibreglass/epoxy

[daddle]

Just above the bottom paint...where it's normally dry...there is sometimes a 'bootstripe' of a different color. For design or to hide the grunge. Then from there on up to the toerail is the 'topsides' paint.

You must be sanding the topsides paint. It's probably some kind of enamel. Or it's the original Gelcoat. Sand it well and paint with EasyPoxie or Brightsides or something like that, I'd guess....

[karma]

Yeah, that's what I figured - and I guessed as to what the bootstripe might be - lol.

From all I've read on the forums, I'm also guessing that Brightsides is the best option other than the 2part system. Pricey though...

Wondered about just putting a marine enamel...