Hopefully we’ll go into the water tomorrow (Monday). Painting the hull bottom was an excruciating job. The paint is nasty and very expensive. You don’t dare make a mistake or it’s costly. My total for bottom paint comes to $950. That does not include the other equipment and materials, or the sanding. Two years ago it was well over $3000 so it paid to do it ourselves. I think??? I can’t imagine doing it again though. We are both sore and tired of it. Colleen had quite a reaction to the solvent she used for cleanup.
I hope the stuffing box project goes smoothly tomorrow. There’s a few other incidentals before we plop into the water and sail off somewhere for a few days of rest. We plan to be in our permanent slip next Saturday, June 13th. We’ll begin stripping the deck and securing things next Sunday. The dinghy will be tied down on the bow. I’m leaving the boat in the good hands of Denis James while I’m gone. He’s not cheap either. Who is? But at least I’ll know the boat will be watched and taken care of if a major hurricane comes this way.
Can’t wait to head home to good old Twin Lakes!!!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
June 6, 2009 – Independent Boat Yard, St Thomas, USVI
The hard work has begun. We pulled up to the Independent Boat Yard on Monday morning to have YOLO hoisted from the water for service. We were sitting on the hard (as they call it) around noon that day. Having the boat out of the water accommodates a number of hull related projects, including repainting the bottom. This needs to be done at least every other year, sometimes more.
I rented the power sander with a vacuum attachment on Tuesday and started grinding the bottom by 9:30AM. It is extremely hard work. I’m paying for the rental sander by the day so my goal is to finish as soon as possible. It didn’t take long to confirm that it would not be a one-day job. My bottom was in poor condition for a couple of reasons. Prior hull service has been done with local help, which means, you get what you pay for. These guys don’t really care about doing a thorough job. So the bottom had a build up of blisters and clumps, etc.
I also found out that the particular kind of bottom paint used in the islands is specific for the salinity of the local salt water. It’s not good for the Chesapeake and it should not sit out of the water very long.
By the middle of day two, grinding upside down, sideways, and every position imaginable, the 15-pound sander felt like 50-pounds. I didn’t know if I would be able to finish but I did. I started at 6:30AM on the second day and was so shot by days end that I was asleep before sunset. Talk about sore. I also had a bit of a reaction to the surface paint. It caused my skin to burn and itch. I had to load up with Benaodryl to sleep.
I had an additional problem with the keel of the boat. A large section of gelcoat and fiberglass had delaminated and fallen off somewhere between Annapolis and here. It’s kind of like losing a piece of skin off of the boat. I can now explain why it happened. My sump box had a crack in it. My bilge pump is located in a sump box, which is the lowest point in the hull of the boat, and where the hull meets the keel. My sump box drops down into the keel and is shielded from outside seawater by a thin layer of fiberglass and gelcoat. Once a crack appeared in the box, however long ago that was, water from my bilge could leak in behind this protective skin of the keel. It finally forced a 12 x 12-inch piece of skin to fall off. Now, outside water could actually push its way back into my boat. This explains why my bilge pump had been kicking on every 20-minutes or so. That’s been a mystery for some time.
I started out clueless about all these problems. My plan was to have a fiberglass guy come in and do repairs. After realizing my low priority status for his service work, I started picking away at it myself. Today, I finished the job. The skin is back on the keel and the crack in the sump box is no more. Those days of cracking up snowmobiles 40-years ago and doing fiberglass repairs has paid off.
Just a bit of caulking to do yet today and then Colleen and I will put a primer coat on tomorrow. Then they’ll be two more coats of this special Micron 66 paint to finish it off.
Colleen has been doing major deck work over the last few days. She has polished all the chrome and re-varnished all the deck wood. She’s working her way through the interior as well, including NEW TOILET SEATS.
Our schedule on dry dock now will be determined by the expedited delivery of a new stuffing box for the propeller shaft. This has been ordered from the states and will hopefully arrive Friday or Monday. Naturally, mine has to be an odd ball. I’m having this work by the machine shop here but I’m anxious to watch the process and help.
Bored yet, I am. Time to guit and go caulk.
I rented the power sander with a vacuum attachment on Tuesday and started grinding the bottom by 9:30AM. It is extremely hard work. I’m paying for the rental sander by the day so my goal is to finish as soon as possible. It didn’t take long to confirm that it would not be a one-day job. My bottom was in poor condition for a couple of reasons. Prior hull service has been done with local help, which means, you get what you pay for. These guys don’t really care about doing a thorough job. So the bottom had a build up of blisters and clumps, etc.
I also found out that the particular kind of bottom paint used in the islands is specific for the salinity of the local salt water. It’s not good for the Chesapeake and it should not sit out of the water very long.
By the middle of day two, grinding upside down, sideways, and every position imaginable, the 15-pound sander felt like 50-pounds. I didn’t know if I would be able to finish but I did. I started at 6:30AM on the second day and was so shot by days end that I was asleep before sunset. Talk about sore. I also had a bit of a reaction to the surface paint. It caused my skin to burn and itch. I had to load up with Benaodryl to sleep.
I had an additional problem with the keel of the boat. A large section of gelcoat and fiberglass had delaminated and fallen off somewhere between Annapolis and here. It’s kind of like losing a piece of skin off of the boat. I can now explain why it happened. My sump box had a crack in it. My bilge pump is located in a sump box, which is the lowest point in the hull of the boat, and where the hull meets the keel. My sump box drops down into the keel and is shielded from outside seawater by a thin layer of fiberglass and gelcoat. Once a crack appeared in the box, however long ago that was, water from my bilge could leak in behind this protective skin of the keel. It finally forced a 12 x 12-inch piece of skin to fall off. Now, outside water could actually push its way back into my boat. This explains why my bilge pump had been kicking on every 20-minutes or so. That’s been a mystery for some time.
I started out clueless about all these problems. My plan was to have a fiberglass guy come in and do repairs. After realizing my low priority status for his service work, I started picking away at it myself. Today, I finished the job. The skin is back on the keel and the crack in the sump box is no more. Those days of cracking up snowmobiles 40-years ago and doing fiberglass repairs has paid off.
Just a bit of caulking to do yet today and then Colleen and I will put a primer coat on tomorrow. Then they’ll be two more coats of this special Micron 66 paint to finish it off.
Colleen has been doing major deck work over the last few days. She has polished all the chrome and re-varnished all the deck wood. She’s working her way through the interior as well, including NEW TOILET SEATS.
Our schedule on dry dock now will be determined by the expedited delivery of a new stuffing box for the propeller shaft. This has been ordered from the states and will hopefully arrive Friday or Monday. Naturally, mine has to be an odd ball. I’m having this work by the machine shop here but I’m anxious to watch the process and help.
Bored yet, I am. Time to guit and go caulk.
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