03: The Refit
Boat Boot Camp – Week #2

Boat Boot Camp – Week #2

More projects this week…

Chainplates

We had Mark from SailCraft (local boatyard) come out to assess the chainplates. The chainplates themselves look good and so we are good to go to move forward with re-sealing them. Stephane did that today (took all day, but it’s DONE which means NO MORE LEAKING in our boat (at least no more leaking from the chainplates)).

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
The is one of the chainplates. There are four on each side plus two in the front and one in the back. First step was to remove the plate and then the bad caulking/sealant.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Clean, re-seal, and voila!

 

Bottom Paint

Bottom paint has chemicals in it that release slowly over time and help to keep critters/algae from growing on the hull. Because the paint sloughs off over time, you have to add coats when you have your boat out of the water. Her original bottom paint was red and we were planning on adding more red to her, but we got a nice deal on some black bottom paint that we could not refuse (this stuff is expensive, like $270 a gallon) . So, we painted her black! I like her new look- she’s more aggressive now. Two coats so far, one more to go.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Before

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Taping up

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
After!

 

Batteries

We ordered two 8D 12v marine batteries – these will be our battery bank and give us 500 amp hours daily. These suckers weigh 180 pounds so we had to be very careful with how we got them on board.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Using our old climbing rope and the wench to lift the battery up to the boat.

 

Bottom Paint for Propeller

The propeller needs love too – a little sanding to remove the crustacean funk, a little acetone to clean, and then a primer. So, this is crazy to me, all these chemicals! In this case, you paint on the primer (which is a primer + another goo that activates the primer). The primer makes it so that you can add another coat of goo. This second coat of goo makes it so that you can put paint (the final coat) on metal. So many steps! So many chemicals…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
After sanding, cleaning, and first goo coat.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
After a second coat of goo, the final goo coat is a red epoxy anti-fouling paint. Done!

 

More cleaning…

IMG_2404
The bilge was quite dirty…

 

1 thought on “Boat Boot Camp – Week #2

Leave a Reply to Tom L Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *