Hull Work

The next few posts will show the gradual transformations of different parts of Spray’s anatomy that have occurred over the last couple of weeks. 

Today’s feature: The Hull.

The hull was water/sand blasted to remove what was left of 20 years of bottom paint. 

Bare, with rust spots already starting on the iron keel.

The iron keel was treated with 4 layers of epoxy (AC20, red). 

Red epoxy on the keel.

An epoxy primer was put on the hull, followed by application of a mastic epoxy putty (enduit) where needed to fill in any pits.  Silicone mastic was put around all the through-hulls, and 2 layers of epoxy undercoat finished off the prep work (SC20 epoxy undercoat, light tan).

Epoxy undercoat on the hull.

The keel, before and after scrape, epoxy, and new seal.

Finally, a coat of new bottom paint (dark blue) was added.  We had to do this in 2 steps; paint around the supports, have the boatyard move the supports, then paint over the spots.   

Blue with tan spots.

1st layer of bottom paint DONE.

The 2^nd will be added a few days before Spray goes in the water.  

We used a hard matrix bottom paint for this first layer, but in coming years, we will switch to erodible matrix. 

In fact, we were just informed yesterday that it will be increasingly difficult to put any bottom paint on the boat in the coming years because of environmental issues and the need to have specially-equipped boatyards to perform the work.   

Many sailors are now moving to the Oceo-Protect system, which is supposed to last anywhere from 5-10 years.  But like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, “I’ll think about that tomorrow”.