Cetol remover

[crieders]

Time to sand or otherwise remove the cetol on the exterior wood.
Is there a good way to avoid sanding by using a remover and if so, whats a good brand?

[KWKloeber]

Cliff. I use the orange based eco-friendly stripper WalMart has (or had several yrs ago).
Can't specifically recall about cetol, but worked very well otherwise. Water cleanup.

K

[Fred Koehlmann]

Hmm, I had to do that on the rails of our old C&C 30. I did go with the sand option, mostly because I was not interested in dropping all that caustic to semi-caustic stuff onto the exterior gelcoat. In my case some of the wood had also gone gray so the sanding helped get down to clean wood. Because the sanding dust was all dry it mostly blew aware (did it on the cradle before launch - not to both my neighbours with the dust). Sanded it most in one weekend and brushed the new Cetol on the next weekend. Looked like new.

One person's perspective.

[mregan]

I used a heat gun which worked well.  I had pulled all the wood off and did it at home so not sure how well it would work on the boat.

[crieders]

I was worried about both the heat gun and the chemicals. I thought that perhaps Practical Sailor had something on this. Will have to check that out too. Thanks

[Bobg]

I used a cheap paint scraper from Ace hardware, they have small and large ones, pull it towards you and just be careful it doesn't slip sideways on you, it will leave a groove, then I finished it with sanding

[WTunnessen]

I've tried eco / water base strippers but I don't like the mess and worry about getting stripper on the gel coat.    In end, I've found sanding it off to be the best option and given the time spent setting up drop cloths etc. and cleaning up - strippers did not save me any more time, which is my limiting factor. The grit you need will depend on the condition of the existing Cetol. 80 grit usually takes it off. Besure to tape in order not to scratch the get coat with the sand paper. If I'm just touching up, I'll use 120 or 180.

[Stu Jackson]

I used a heat gun, having previously used all the other methods.  I let the eyebrows and handrails go gray and used teak cleaner then brightener on them this spring.  The cockpit wood was done last summer by my wife who used paint remover.  Everybody's got their own "go to" solution.  Like many things in life, there is no "best" or "right single answer."