Hours on end of grinding gives one plenty of time to consider the layers, one, by one, by one as the angle grinder slowly cuts through them. The picture below shows: black bottom paint; red bottom paint; white gel coat; the gray is an epoxy barrier coat put on at the yard; and finally the raw fiberglass which is tan. If all the bottom was as well stuck together as the layers in this picture, grinding would be unnecessary. But...
...as the picture below vividly shows, all the layers aren't sticking together. In fact, in this picture there's a noticeable gap between the fiberglass and the layers above it. Interestingly, it isn't the gel coat that's peeling, it's the epoxy barrier coat beneath it! Perhaps during hull layup the yard let the epoxy set too long before applying the glass over the barrier coat. Whatever was done wrong, it wasn't totally wrong--because at least half the gel coat is well bonded.
No explanation needed for the picture below, except to say this was taken after only 1:20 of grinding.
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