You have to wear acid gloves and a gas mask (the fumes are very caustic) and
make sure you stay away from getting the fumes on your skin, in your eyes, or
in your lungs. Just for safety's sake I kept a hose running near by in case I
had to use it.
Jasco Paint stripper takes the bottom paint off and doesn't seem to be
softening the gelcoat. I called West Systems and asked for tech advice. They
said that the gelcoat would take forever to soften, and that if I worked
carefully and rinsed the stripper off in 15 minutes or less, the gelcoat would
be fine. (So that's why the Jasco didn't work worth a damn stripping the old
resin off my rudder when I rebuilt/refinished it. I used a heat gun to soften
the resin and scrape it off).
After I get everything stripped, I plan to wet sand it with 400 grit then 800
grit to get the scratches out below the waterline. I've done that to my
fiberglass dinghies before to restore the gel coat on 25 year old boats and
they come out beautiful.
The boatyard wanted $500-800 to remove all the old bottom paint and barnacle
glue. This is going to cost me about one tenth of that. Course, my labor....