Bottom paint damage and repair advise request

[Captain Bart]

I have a 170 Osprey that I just bought.  It spent all of it's time in Ohio freshwater.  The hull appears to be in excellent condition but the bottom has been painted with a black bottom paint that feels a bit rough to the touch.  I also noticed that the paint has been worn completely away (down to the fiberglass) along the bottom center of the hull where it look's like it's been run up on a sandbar.  
I wanted to repaint the whole boat anyway but I am not sure if I can finance that project right now.
Can anyone tell me what to look for in the way of what needs to be done, how, and how much it might cost.  Also is there an acceptable way to do a patch work fix to hold off until I can do it properly?

[RickK]

Hi Bart,
Bottom paint is expensive, no two ways around it.  There is two kinds for the most part, "hard" bottom paint and ablative paint.  The hard will need to be sanded off or maybe you can find someone to sandblast, maybe with walnut shells or something less aggressive then sand and then you can repaint it yourself.  Just need to get off the trailer, preferably hanging from the 3 eyes on the boat.
Ablative wears away as you use it so theoretically you can eventually wash it all off.   Unfortunately the gelcoat was probably scruffed up with some heavy sand paper to make the paint stick better.
I tried to remove the hard paint from my 230 myself and tried sanding and also paint remover without success.  I eventually brought it to a guy that removed the old (I think sand blasted) and then painted with ablative. Cost was approx $700 for a 23ft boat.  A 17 might have 14-15ft of length at the waterline so it should be much less.

BTW, I moved your topic here in the paint forum.

[Captain Bart]

Thanks for the move.  I did not know there was a paint topic until after I submitted the post.
You have definitely eased my anxiety.  However I have one concern and that is since the paint on the bottom eroded down to the bare fiberglass, I'm I still able to run the boat or should I keep it dry until I can repaint it?

[RickK]

Is it smooth glass or showing all the threads?  Like someone wore off the gelcoat? If so, I would get some gelcoat over the bare glass and sand it down.
That is not very much expense for a qt of gelcoat. Doesn't have to match if you're going to cover it with paint.

[Captain Bart]

It's smooth.  It's on the bottom, like some one ran up on a sand bar.  I can see all the layers of paint.

[RickK]

Hi Bart,
I can't tell due to the size of the pic.  You have a gallery here on the site under your name.  Follow the instructions here http://www.classicaquasport.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=12512 to upload and then post your pictures so we can see what you have going on.  It's very easy - if you can get them into the gallery we can help from there.