My Favorite Boat Bottom Scraping Tool

If you already know about this tool, you’ll say, “Well, of course.” If, like Dave and I, you’ve never heard of it, it quickly became my favorite boat bottom paint scraping tool. Here’s why.

Bottom Scraping Hell

Scraping all the bottom paint off Barefoot Gal was its own type of hell. About a third came off very easily, a third came off with more effort, and a third did not want to come off at all. We joked that it must have been mixed with 5200.*

Now, the thing about a catamaran vs. a monohull is that the cat has a lot of bottom area that’s parallel to the ground. I laid on my back for days — weeks — on end. I’d be scraping away while Dave followed behind, wetsanding it down to the gel coat. I tried several different scrapers. But I kept returning to a simple putty knife. It did the best job without gouging the gel coat.

One Boat Owner’s Suggestion

When I was about three-quarters done, another Gemini came into the yard. The owner saw what I was doing and went back to his tool bag. He handed me this slightly different scraper, telling me to see if it worked any better (he was a retired shop teacher and obviously knew the answer). I couldn’t believe the difference. It literally cut the work in half. How much time would it have saved if we’d had it from the start?

It’s called a 6-in-1 painter’s tool. While it has a sharp edge, which makes the scraping much easier, it doesn’t tear up the gel coat like the hook-type paint scrapers do (unless, of course, you put a huge amount of pressure on the scraping edge). The big advantage over a putty knife is that the scraping edge can be sharpened. I found that I needed to sharpen it every 4 to 6 hours of use. To be honest, the scraper is the only one of the six “functions” that I’ve used.

That evening, I ordered my own 6-in-1 tool. About a week later, I ordered a second one so that Dave and I could both use one at the same time. You can get them at most home improvement and hardware stores. I ordered ours online as the nearest store was over half an hour away. This is what I got:

• Red Devil 6-in-1 Painter’s Tool on Amazon

Other Uses Besides Boat Scraping

Since then, we’ve used it for many other projects as well — notably, cleaning off old sealant when rebedding deck hardware and getting all sorts of “gunk” off the engine and engine compartment. We found it much better for just about everything — the only time that the putty knife is better is when we need something really thin to get between parts.

Cruiser Gregory says he uses the curved part for scraping gunk off his anchor rode. And Kellie keeps one in her galley. She claims it’s great for shucking corn, along with many other uses.

Cruisers Helping Cruisers

That Gemini owner improved my life by introducing me to the best boat bottom scraping tool I’ve ever used. Cruisers help cruisers, and it’s the idea behind The Boat Galley. Get the practical tips, expert insights, and proven strategies to help you tackle life aboard with confidence and simplicity by subscribing to The Boat Galley Newsletter.

Why not learn from another cruiser before you find yourself scraping your boat’s bottom futilely?

*Some have asked why we didn’t soda blast the paint off or use a chemical paint remover. We didn’t soda or sand blast as we didn’t want to remove or damage the gel coat. We tested using a chemical paint remover, and hated the thought of working with one over our heads. So we scraped and wetsanded.

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