Happiness Is A Neat Blue Bottom

I had a very satisfying weekend. To be frank, the last few weeks of getting Poetry aka Cadence (more on that some other post) ready to launch have been frustrating. I had tried to service three sea-cocks and buggered one up completely. The others need adjusting by someone who knows what they are doing. I had tried to re-bed the chain-plate covers but could not lever them off as they had been previously glued down hard.

This weekend I took on the task of putting on a new coat of antifoulant. Saturday was the grim job of sanding.

I got to the yard at noon and the place was in full swing. It was very social and great to see many old mates who were prepping their boats. I always forget to add 90 minutes to any trip to the yard for all the "Hey, how's it goings?" followed by "What are you doing on your boat?" and "Now you know what you should do…"  I have learned a ton through these conversations but it can cut an hour or two into your maintenance time.

In previous years I never quite put enough protective gear on and by the end of the bottom-sanding, I looked like I was going to a fancy dress party in a bad Avatar costume. This time I put a hood on, big goggles, a large mask, good gloves and overalls. It took 3-4 hours of solid sanding followed by an hour of wiping the bottom down with acetone. I got her bottom pretty smooth and managed to keep most of the blue paint dust off me.

On Sunday, I started with a trip to West Marine where I spoke to the "Wise One". Every West Marine has one. He's in his sixties, has owned boats since he was an embryo, including a 1930s gaff-rigged shrimper that he restored from a pile lumber. He has perfected a look of kindly condescension and answers every question with a raised eyebrow and a furrowed brow. It's a practiced look and hard to do.

The conversation was actually highly productive as he talked me out of doing a number of tasks I was planning on: "Paint the prop? Waste of money!", "Fill in the gouges with epoxy? Nah, take the bottom off next year…"

By the way I have found that the secret to productive boat maintenance. In the Winter make a very long list of boat jobs. My list ran to 3 pages. Then as launch approaches, cross things off that don't need doing. I knocked off 50% of the tasks that way. That way you have 3 pages of tasks, half crossed-out before you even get started. It's very satisfying, trust me.

Anyway, back to my bottom. After a brief and surprisingly low cost trip to West Marine, I suited up to paint. If you haven't ever painted the bottom of a sailboat with antifoulant, let me warn you, that stuff is messy. I mean really messy. You could seal your entire body in a protective sheath, use a long pole to put the paint on, better yet watch someone else doing the painting and you will still get paint all over yourself. The key thing is not getting paint above the waterline.

The trick is to take a lot of time to carefully tape off the waterline. I started by applying electrical tape along the waterline. As it stretches, you get a perfect straight line that lays on the ridge of old bottom paint. I then ran two bands of 2 inch good quality masking tape above this. I also taped off the transducer and impeller. Only then did I crack open the paint, gave it a good stir and got to work with the roller.

For someone like me, who has two left hands when it comes to craft-work and fixing things, there is little more satisfying than applying antifoulant. Watching a roughed-up, chipped surface, unevenly colored turn a matt, solid, blue would give Michelangelo a quiet moment of pride. The painting doesn't take long, maybe two hours for the whole job. After I finished, I ran the roller back across the drying paint to smooth out the roller lines. It looked bee-oo-tee-fool!

Last job was to paint under the stands. This is time-consuming. Many people, move the stands around but I am always concerned that I won't put them in the right place and will compromise the stability of the boat. I take a slower approach and one-by-one lower the pads on each stand that hold the hull in place and paint over the square that I had just painted round. Then leave to dry for a couple of hours and work on the next one.

It takes a long time to do it that way and I was one of the last ones left in the yard but for the first time this year, I felt I had actually accomplished something on the boat without feeling like I had buggered something up.

Next week, second attempt at re-bedding deck fittings.