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 on our beautiful home…
…The last job was a fresh coat of wax on the top-sides to keep her looking fresh through-out the coming winter months, T’da!!!
It’s been by far the most relaxing haul-out of the 7 Dena and I have done together and that’s not from a lack of huge projects on this one, I believe we can attribute our good fortune this time around directly to patience, experience and a love for the work that can only show through a job well done.
Absolutely true – and things really did go very smoothly. I was a little concerned that we’d have to keep working past Wednesday…which would have meant that I was working without James…but nope! We got’er done in good time and splashed just before James had to be at work. Good stuff!
Beautiful results——–and you might try those suits in public, could be a fashion craze.
It looks like the prop is even further forward than it was on Sapien, does that mean more prop walk in reverse. As I’m sure you remember prop walk is my favorite part of boat handling——-NOT!!
This boat, believe it or not, backs-down like a dream. We’ve had her in some pretty tight docking situations and she performs a lot better than you’d expect with all that keel… We are both REALLY getting into this boat right now and it shows for sure!
hey james, cw here in va. bch. how you guys doing? boat is looking great….listen if you still have my no. give me a call i need to talk to you.
cw gaskill\
SV Lucky 7
HEY CW!!!
Will do…
I got a broken up message from you a few weeks ago and I totally forgot to hit you back but I’ll give you a call A.S.A.P.
She looks beautiful – Can’t wait to step aboard again soon – much love to you both…