The final weekend before splash!

With one weekend left, the push was on as we drove to Shenny last Saturday. With rainy weather forecast for Sunday, our main goal for Saturday was to paint the fourth coat of Interprotect plus the two coats of bottom paint onto the hull. Everything else would be gravy.

Timing the fourth coat of Interprotect plus the first coat of bottom paint is important. The goal is to apply the bottom paint while the barrier coat is semi-dry. You want to leave a thumb print in the paint without getting paint on your thumb. If you wait too long your choice is to either paint a fifth coat or sand the bottom. At over $100/gallon a fifth coat was not appealing, nor was more sanding, so as we drove down we discussed our strategy. Continue reading “The final weekend before splash!” →

Finally! Barrier coat times two.

We woke up bright and early last Saturday for our drive down to Shenny. Although we weren’t going to be able to paint that day (the low temperature was forecast to be in the upper 30’s), we were feeling cheerful because it looked like all systems were go for Sunday. It was going to be a bright and sunny weekend, and we still had plenty of things to take care of.

We arrived at the boat (after our weekly stop at Defender) ready to start the weekend with replacing the exhaust hose on the engine. During Pegu Club’s survey, the surveyor had pointed out cracks in the hose . He had also suggested raising the hose higher to help keep following seas from entering the engine via the hose. We had done some research and discovered there were some elaborate ways to prevent this from occurring, but simply raising the hose up higher above the waterline was going to have to suffice for now. Continue reading “Finally! Barrier coat times two.” →

40 Hours Later…

We were in extremely high spirits as we drove home from Shenny this past Saturday – we were finished sanding! All told we spent 24 hours scraping and 16 hours sanding. There’s no doubt about the fact that it was hard work, but when we think about how much money we saved compared to hiring someone it was definitely worth it. The best part is that we shouldn’t ever have to do it again. If for some reason we do (like, twenty years down the road), we’ll pay someone given that we’ll be living in a country where the labor costs will be substantially lower than here in Connecticut.

The worst part about Saturday’s job is that we had to scrape and sand the boat where the poppets were. Continue reading “40 Hours Later…” →

So I like sanding – yes, this makes me weird.

Now that we’ve finished scraping the bottom of the boat, it’s time to turn our attention to sanding. Scraping doesn’t get rid of all of the paint, and before we put the barrier coat on the bottom needs to be paint free – down to the gelcoat.

We only had one sander, so initially Jeff gamely sanded on his own while I worked inside the boat. The inside of the VHF cabinet needed to be cleaned, along with the area where the Origo is inserted, so I broke out our trusty Clorox Clean-up and got to work. I was very pleased with the difference in the VHF cabinet (“before” is on the left”):

Before

After

I also started working on wiring diagrams for our 12 volt electrical system. We still are complete novices when it comes to all things electric, but bit-by-bit we’re learning.

It was clear after a few trips to Shenny that we needed to get another sander if we wanted to be finished any time in the near future, so after the obligatory trip to Home Depot we were back at Shenny last weekend ready to get back at it. This was going to be my first time sanding, so Jeff showed me the ropes and we got to it. Continue reading “So I like sanding – yes, this makes me weird.” →

So it took a bit longer than Thanksgiving weekend.

I haven’t been posting much because really, how many times can I post about scraping? But this is a celebratory post, because as of Saturday, December 12th, the scraping was done!

I have no idea what I was smoking when I thought that we would be finished scraping by the end of Thanksgiving weekend. Maybe I was in denial. Whatever it was, it was clear by the Friday after Thanksgiving that it wasn’t going to happen. Even if that Saturday hadn’t been a rain day, we still wouldn’t have finished. However, we did make some progress by the end of that weekend, and by the following Saturday we were VERY close to completion:

IMG_20151205_141309109_HDR (1) — **One side is completely finished!**

Honestly, we could have finished on Sunday the 6th, but I went on strike. I had blisters on my hands from the day before, and I decided that one weekend day off from physical labor was completely reasonable.

Continue reading “So it took a bit longer than Thanksgiving weekend.” →

Scrape, scrape, scrape…

Scrape, scrape, scrape…scrape your bo-at, scrape your bo-at. Yes, “Shake Your Booty” by KC & the Sunshine Band has been running through my brain when I think about this project. No need to thank me for the ear worm.

The last few weekends have seen slow progress on our latest project of scraping the bottom. It’s not that it has been particularly time-consuming. It’s just that intervening circumstances have dictated that we only put in a few hours each weekend.

Continue reading “Scrape, scrape, scrape…” →

This is not going to be one of our favorite projects.

Saturday, October 31st found us at Shenny helping with the club’s fall clean-up. Our plan was to come back the next day to keep working on the boat. Unfortunately, I made the foolish mistake of thinking that I could hang with the guys and decided to help with dismantling “E” dock. After toting many carts filled with heavy copper wire and bending over countless times to drill out hundreds of screws, Sunday, November 1st found me laid up with a sore left hamstring. If I had been a horse, I would have been taken out and shot. Needless to say, we did not go down to the boat that day, but by Saturday, November 7th we were back and ready to get to work.

Continue reading “This is not going to be one of our favorite projects.” →