Refinishing da Bottom... Who's good?

[wb]

I have about 16 coats of bottom paint chipping and flaking off Ya Sista's A$$. Ya Sista's A$$ is a fine old 24' walkaround that hopefully we will be keeping a long time. Having done some scraping and painting on bottoms of other boats in the past, I have come to realize this is one of those things it is perhaps better to sub out to a pro. However, I know of no-one anymore that I can be confident will take the extra time and effort to do it right.
 
With the winter hard on us now, and likely some fine shops at their slowest for business, I'm thinking remove old paint down to gelcoat (shell blast perhaps?), at least a couple epoxy barrier coats, then some nice thick black ablative stuff to hopefully last a couple of years (or at least 1). Any recommendations? Currently boat is in Edison wrapped up on a trailer. 

[catfish hunter]

run down to 7-11 and get a copy of the boat shopper they always have places listed in the back . 16 coats wow,that thing is gonna fly when you put it back in the water

[Luna Sea 5]

you should use the bottom paint that wears off like a bar of soap, this way there is no build up.

[PeggyLee]

Check around Marine Yards ,see what they get a foot and what they can do for YaSista.

[CapBob]

couple of good soda blasters around anywhere from $45-70 a foot....having my boys whaler done as soon as the weather breaks

[Hunter 2]

Warren, I stripped the bottom of my boat myself last spring. NEVER AGAIN  Its a royal pain in the a$$. Soda blasting would have cost around $900. I should of let them do it. Once the bottom paint is gone you should touch up any chips on the bottom with filler then have it Barrier coated.  Wagners charged me around $1100 for 3 coats of barrier coat and 2 coats of bottom paint for my 23'. They did a nice job. And the paint was included. Barrier coat paint is exspensive. good luck. 

[wb]

Thanks guys, still looking around....