Well, sorry for the lack of updates. The past month has been a hectic one. I had to push hard to get the boat to a position that I could leave it for the 75 days that I am now at work again. So, that meant a lot of sanding. And even more sanding in tight places where you could only do it by hand and it seems like more skin came off my fingers than glass came off the boat. After the new deck was laid on the entire thing had to be faired. That meant, laying down a fairing compound, and then sanding it all off until it filled all the low spots and made a nice surface for the paint. I first put down a layer of Interprotect 2000e to seal the newly laid glass. Then I started by using the Interlux WaterTite fairing compound, which turned out just about impossible to work with. It took almost 8 hours to set and was impossible to sand. So I switched to Pettit Ez-Fair, another epoxy based fairing compound but only took 3 hours to cure and was a lot easier to sand. I spent a couple weeks fairing by my self and was running thin and on the edge of giving in. I ended up hiring the yard worker to lend a hand when he could. We ended up finishing the fairing process just before I had to go to work. We put Dolphin Lte, as a finish filler to get rid of any pin holes and smaller scratched as it was sand-able in 15minutes and had a nice contrasting color to the e-z fair. I then laid down 2-3 more layers of Interprotect 2000e to fully seal the deck.We then taped off anything that was not supposed to have paint on it. I am painting the top sides in Awl Grip; Snow White color. A very white white, you would be surprised at how many shaded of white there are available! So anything that is not supposed to have white on it got covered with tape and masking paper. I think we went through about 7 rolls of tape to get it done.The day before I left the primer got laid down. The yard worker, Ian, didn’t like how it came out and saw some little spots that were missed, so we spent another day sanding and filling again. It is easy to over look small spots after starring at the same white deck for 3 weeks straight. Ian is going to finish the paint job while I am at work. Then the non-skid is going to be sprayed on. I went with Ultra Tuff, which is a ruberized coating and is fairly new, so I am very curious to see how it comes out. I went with that because it seems like it is very durable, easy on bare feet, easy to apply, and was cost saving compared to grip tex or similar. I will try to post pictures when they get sent to me. Also, while I am gone, the carpenter, Walter Atkins, is going to finish up the interior work. He showed me the main hatch that he redid in his shop and it took my breath away how nice it came out. I can’t wait to see the boat when I get back from work! It is going to be an entirely different boat.
For those of you that don’t know, work for me is shipping out on a large oil tanker called the Mississippi Voyager as a Marine engineer. I do 75 days on and 75 days off. Not too bad only working half the year. Anyway, while out here I plan on ordering all the safety supplies like EPIRB, jack lines, life vests, flares, fenders, dock lines etc. I also have to out fit the galley, and have a few ideas from http://theboatgalley.com/ , as well as the multiple people who are vying for the position of cook on the boat… I have also sent the life raft and fire extinguishers away to be reinspected and certified. My mother is remaking all the cushions and should be great when they are done! If I did this job again, there is one thing that I would do different after getting to the spot I am in now. When cutting the old deck out, I would leave a larger border around the edge of the cut out to make a larger bevel and not go any where near the radius of the cap rail. That way all of the sanding would be flat and could be done with an air file and not by hand, having to essentially rebuild the radius. My fingers would have thanked me! You would have to dig out more core material from underneath it but, it was so rotten anyway that it could be easily removed, I guess it would all depend on the condition of what was underneath… Well, back to work, wish I got a real vacation.“Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working.” ~ Unknown
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