A Milestone and an Anniversary

We have finished painting the boat!! There are some exceptions to that, as we have holes to fill and bits that got missed or need a touch up, but - we're finished. Frankie and Chris did the remainder of the non-skid a couple of days ago, and it looks really nice. We are still keeping off the most recently painted parts, though they feel dry to the touch. As always the preparation is the key and took the most time. Taping all the areas feels like forever. The paint went on fairly easily and they did three coats in total.

Careful taping is what gives great results

No one stepped in a paint tray

Beautiful

Hardware is already finding it's way back onto the boat. Two winches for the sheets, two new hatches in the cockpit and 2 above the back deck, 2 new hatches waiting to be installed in the cabin top. It wasn't part of our thrifty plan to get all of these - just some fittings to stop the leaks - but the boat is so pretty it is hard to put all the worn and scratched hatches back on.

Newly painted non skid with winches and hatch

Yesterday we went to Richmond and bought two 8'x4' sheets of 3/8" acrylic that we will use to replace the cracked/leaking/opaqued windows we arrived with. These were definitely always on the list to be renewed. We are going to change the side windows from one long piece of acrylic that straddles the three windows to 3 separate pieces big enough to cover each window. Hopefully that will help stop leaks due to flexing. And the price of acrylic has dropped since we researched it last year to just under US$300 a sheet so we're pleased.

One of the repairs we did to the hull has started to blister like the small pox. Frank's professional eye declared it to be uncured epoxy. Most of what we have used was West System, but this was some that Chris picked up at Home Depot. He might have mixed it wrongly, or it just doesn't work on a boat, but it has to come out. Good thing we are still here :-)

Uncured epoxy - let's start again

AND - we have just commemmorated the completion of our first full year at the boat yard since being hauled the end of July'08. Everyone gallantly declares it doesn't seem that long though one newcomer was told we had been here for at least 2 years! Hopefully that translates to us feeling like family rather than a pain in the ass.

Bonus!

We are in the process of applying the non-skid. It is being rolled on, and being done piecemeal, partly to make it easier to manoeuver while painting, and partly because we were away for a couple of weeks. We chose a soft grey for the non-skid which will alleviate the monotony of all white as well as reduce glare. The downside of choosing a complementary colour for the non-skid is that all mistakes show, and the paint is hard to control.
The yard has done the first part for us due to our absence, and we are going to attempt the rest - with their help.
Then our painting will be done apart for a few repair jobs and changes we decided on AFTER we started.

Non skid on half the cabin top - looking good

We realized a little late in the day that we could make changes to some features of the boat. For instance, we could move the swim ladder from it's central position in order to fit a propeller guard. Prior to that we had simply assumed we couldn't have the propeller guard. Doh. Things started to gather speed as we realized we could eliminate quite a few other features of the boat and fill in through hulls.
The refrigeration on the boat had never been used by us, and definitely would need ripping out and replacing before we could. So why not rip it out and fill the hole left in the cabin top and try to manage without built in refrigeration all together? Think of all the space we'd gain! If we decide we absolutely have to have it we won't have any more work to do that we would have had to do in the first place.
And then - what about the airconditioning?? Do we really need it? We have working air (which can also be used to heat) which is nice. But when the previous owners fit the airconditioning, they had to install a heavy Entec diesel generator in order to run it. We've used the air in marinas - and given profuse thanks for it - but never run it at anchor because of the noise of the generator. And because we never really needed it at anchor. So let's take those out too! The airconditioner weighed a LOT (newer ones seem much lighter) and the generator was so heavy and awkward (about 300 lbs) it had to come out in several pieces. It's a nice compact little generator with hardly any hours on it but just too heavy for our catamaran. We will probably replace it with a Honda gas generator that weighs less and is portable. We'd been mulling over removing the generator for months but only decided AFTER the painting was done! Now we will have to fill in the through hull and repaint that part of the hull.

A fine time to take this out!

There was a nice bit of serendipity the other day. Bobby the mechanic was talking to a monohull owner who had just bought a second-hand engine. It had come with an attachment the owner didn't need, didn't want and didn't know what it was for. Bobby recognized that this was a Silette Sonic leg, just what we have on our boat. We sure could use a new one! The boat owner was happy to trade his Sonic leg for things he needed. We had lots of stuff he could use, but when he heard we were removing our airconditioning the deal was as good as done! A couple of winches, a bosun's chair, a working airconditioning unit and a few dollars later we had our leg and he had air. Everone was happy.

Our new leg