I think the worst job on any boat is sanding the bottom! Now my boat is only 34 feet, I couldn't imagine doing a 40 footer or bigger. I had heard about all these- bio-paint removers, tried 2 different ones - no luck. Read a review of a new one - "takes off 4-9 layers of bottom paint", ordered a sample can with the paper to cover the remover up and let it sit for 24 hours!
No luck, so back to sanding. My great friend Kasy helped out this past weekend in sanding the boat, brought 2 cheap sanders, had 2 shop vacs and we went to work with lots of sand paper.
Burned out one of the shop vacs but got about 98% of the bottom done. My bottom isn't as bad as I thought. Though I did find some bad repairs to the rudder that I will have to fix. Bondo again, but they put the Bondo on over the bottom paint which is a really BIG NONO!
Will finish the bottom and repair the rudder next weekend.
Stay tuned - as I feverishly finish the repairs.