All that really matters is that you THINK your boat is sailing faster

I took the same approach as you did about stripping off the loose paint. It took a few years to get it all sanded down using a random orbit sander but it looks good now. I've been using VC-17 for several years now. I do get some growth so maybe Aqua guard is worth looking into and it is cheaper than VC-17 at my local store!