Our boat is 49 years old and this year for her birthday, we got her a Haul-Out! We’ve spent the last three days Hauling her out of the water, putting in two new through-hull’s! One in the Galley… …And one in the Head. The thru-hulls turned out to be easy, no really(!) …So we could take our sweet time on the bottom and get it done right. Day one and two were picture perfect best-case-scenario, haul-out days. The weather was cool and clear on the first day and cool and damp on the second day making for comfortable working conditions both days. This is our first go-round with the Trinidad S.R., the most pricey of West Marine’s bottom pain offerings, so doing the job right was a luxury we could afford on this haul-out. The first step was to chip-n-scrape every square inch of the bottom of the boat to make sure none of those pesky Chesapeake Bay Critters survived the power washing. Next, we griddle bricked from stem to stern using griddle cleaning pumice bricks to wet-sand every single part of the boat that makes constant contact with the water. It was indeed a back-breaking job that coated us both in a thick black goop made up of YEARS of local crustacean life from here to Key West, FL… Day Two was also spent buffing out the top-sides with 3M buffing compound and that made the boat look incredible! After that we prepped her bottom for a serious Petit, Trinidad SR bottom-painting. Interlux 216 is a special solvent that leveled the paint on the bottom. It gives it a smoother look and helps the new paint adhere better. On day three we gussied-up in our best bottom-painting gear and put a new thick coat of bright red bottom paint[…]
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