Scraping the bottom: Day four

Now was the time to switch to the other side of the boat. Not because the other one is fully done but I really want to get as much of the hull bare as possible before the winter kicks in, so today i had some help with the scraping and after awhile we got quite a large area stripped in the amount of time we put into it. Some additional patch jobs were found but so far these seem to be done the way they should be, so no complaints of those (at least for now).

The paint scheme of the boat just keeps getting weirder and weirder. In the bow we found some yellow layers of paint on top of the other colors discovered so far. I think I will use ablative anti-fouling paint in order to avoid getting paint layers to build up on top each other  The bottom will stay nicer and since we cruise at around 17 knots I think it will still stick and not wear away during the summer season.

Here you can see the many layers of paint in the bow area. Once you scrape the first (hard) coat off it is unbelievable how many layers there are on this bottom. When I slide my finger over the bare spots I can clearly feel that there is about 3 millimeters of old paint that is wrinkled and dried up. Speaking of which I gather all the remnants of the old paint and so far I have scraped off one whole bucket of that nasty stuff.

Now for the most crucial question, can I expect some improvements in speed vs. the same rpm with new silky smooth finish? I know that sailors claim improvements of around half to a whole knot but what about half planing powerboats?