Do bottoms really need to be painted?

What a pain in the bottom! I've taken a break from my kayak building to get my sailboat ready for the season. I started out planning to do only the necessary maintenance, but additional motivation prompted me to do an extensive refurb. This is a boat I finished about 7 years ago and has accumulated a number of nicks, dings, scratches, and abuses through normal use. It has lived inside most of it's life, but spent a year and a half under tarps recently in the NE and suffered in a few places from the exposure. This is mostly a photo essay and I regret not having taken pictures of the before condition as a comparison of it'e restored condition. The original motivation for the extensive renovation was to prepare the boat for sale, possibly a trade for a larger vessel. I'm not sure if I plan to carry through with that plan. If I keep the vessel, she'll become a test bed for some Ideas I want to build into my next design. The transformation though, has been nice and I've made some improvements to the little vessel.

It may take a while to post and annotate all the photos.

A couple of before photos.

 

The deck.

The side deck suffered the most from the exposure. The tarps allowed moisture to settle on the side decks. The design of the side decks traps a bit of water and the varnish deteriorated because of continued water exposure, I believe. Wire brushing and sanding were all that was needed here for varnish prep. Two coates of 2015, already applied, and one coat of 1015 is the coating schedule for the decks.

There was about four problem areas on the deck other than the finish. The base of the tabernacle had a couple of breaks in the boundary layer that showed signs of water ingress. Where the water ingress followed the grain line, I took a saber saw blade in a pair of visegrips and reefed out the offending material. In other places, I sanded through the boundary coating to remove the damage and questionable material. The underlying material was coated with unthickened epoxy and then filled with thickened epoxy to bring fair to the surface. Unfortunately, my color matching wasn't always the best and the fix is quite visible.

Similar damage was at the cabin corner and was similarly fixed.

The aft end of my coamings were only attached to deck with thicken epoxy and maybe a fastener up through the deck from below. This joint had a barrier coat failure on both P ans S sides and water war getting under the joint causing a pre-rot condition. This area was reefed out, filled with thickened epoxy and filleted this time, as it probably should have been in the first place.

The last area on the deck was an improperly sealed screw hole that allowed moisture into the wood, causing a split in the surface layer. Reefed out, wetted with epoxy and filled.

 

The Hull

The hull has a number of dings and scratches. The places where the glass is fractured have been ground out and filled with thickened epoxy. I considered reglassing those areas. but they are small and I feel that thickened epoxy will provide the needed integrity at those location. Several layers of varnish have been applied to the damaged areas to be followed by a single coat over the entire hull. These are before pictures.



At the time I built the hull, I was very unfamiliar with many things about boat building. The only local source I could find for fiberglass did not have the 6 oz. cloth specified in the plans. I can't remember now, but the cloth I used was in the 10-12 oz. range and has provides for a very strong shell. I have bounced off of more than one rock with this vessel and I am always surprised by how little damage results.

This is my tool for reefing out unwanted material from damaged areas.

 

The Cockpit.

There were four areas also that needed attention in the cockpit. Water accumulation in the seats was causing a pre-rot condition. The floor of the footwell had dings to the finish where the main block and cleat were originally placed along with the padeye used to anchor the block. There were some poorly sealed holes in the coaming where I had mounted a retractable bimini. And lastly, the lazarette hinges were properly placed and mounted allowing for moisture penetration there.

Again, I had not placed fillets around the inside of the cockpit. The design of this cockpit is not the best for dainage in a static condition. Even though the boat was under tarps, water would still get in acccumulate in certain locations. in these areas, where joints occur, there was in dications of water penetrating the seams. All varnish was removed within an inch of most seams around the seating area. In areas of stained wood, the epoxy coating was removed and those areas were sanded extensively to remove as much staining as possibly, fillets were added, epoxy barrier built up and varnish coats built back up. Two layers of 2015 varnish has been applied and a final coat of 1015 will be applied.



The dinged areas were planed down, sanded and recoated. The padeye was removed. The remaining holes were steop drilled and filled with thickened epoxy. Varnish was applied as necessary. That is also my jib sheet jamb-cleat at the top of the photo. It's a bit over-cleated at the moment.



The bimini mounting holes were dilled oversize with a stepped drill bit from both sides and filled with thickened epoxy. If I chose to remount the bimini, I'll have locations in the coaming now where I can drill new holes entirely in thickened epoxy. I gave a nice radius to the hole where the jib sheet penetrates the coaming.



Finally, the lazarette lid. What pain this has been. I tried to mount the hinges invisibly, but could never get them positioned properly. I never sealed the holes because it was dry sailed and stored inside and I never got it attached where I liked the installation. Then along comes outside storage and any deficiencies in construction are going to come glaring through. The fix on this included sealing and filling holes. I filled the rebates for the hinges with thickened epoxy, rounded sharp corners, rebuilt the barrier coatings and varnished it anew. Instead of using hinges, I placed a piece of wood on the aft seatback over the lazarette opening to act as a retainer for the aft edge of the lid. The forward edge of the lid has a lip and I placed another piece inside the lid that guides the lid down over the bulkhead that it seals to. A simple hook holds down the front edge while the aft edge is retained by the new piece. A new seal on the lower edge of the retaining strip channels water to the lid sides and the old perimeter seal on the bottom keeps the water out of the lazarette. The new design allows the lid to be completely removed and placed elsewhere in the boat, or even inside the lazarette. Before, there was always some conflict with the tiller and the lid would always close when it was most inconvenient. A may consider a lanyard to keep the lid close by so it never completely leaves the boat.

 

OK, I'm getting senile. When I clicked on this thread I thought it was asking, 'do bottoms really need to be pointed?':

 

The Mast

I found evidence of water ingress around a couple of the sail track screws. There was also evidence of damage from the highway "incident". The sail track was completely removed. All screw holes were drilled oversize with a step drill and all were refilled with thickened epoxy. The holes are redrilled in the thickened epoxy awaiting sailtrack installation. All finish was removed around the damage at the top of the mast. A layer of 6 oz. cloth was added as reinforcement on one side of the top of the mast and inside the adjacent sheave cavity surface to form shell of protection and strength there. Three coats of varnish were applied to the mast along with new trim paint.

 

As opposed to being tipped? I'll bet your wondering about the whole bottom reference thing. I figured any butt reference was going to get somebody's attention. Perhaps, I'll be getting to the bottom of things at some point.

 

Mein Got LP, you are fastidious and meticulous and have produced a very impressive quality finish on your boat... - - - All boaties in the world must be jealous... Do please post more pictures of your concours d'elegance...

 

Thanks, Masalai!

 

The Boom

Thank goodness, no real refurb here. A couple of coats of varnish and the new trim paint.

Note the dual cleats on the outhaul. I was going for a traditional look with this boat and originally only used horn cleats for all of my lines. It quickly became apparent that this was not a good solution for working in close quarters. Most of my horn cleats have been supplemented with quick release jamb cleats. This makes a nicely functioning system for the lines on my boat. The jamb cleats are great for initially setting lines and preparing to dock. The horn cleats then provide security of lines once they are set and things are settled during the sail.

 

The Tabernacle and Bowsprit

Nothing major here. I cut an inch off of the top so the tabernacle and the stowed mast would align with it. I chamfered the forward edge of the tabenacle, took it up over the top and down the back side a bit. I don't plan to store it under tarps again, but this is the point where most wear took place on the tarps. I am hoping to alleviate the problem should I be in the situation again. I threw in a some radius and it was ready barrier coating, varnish and paint. This was the first time for paint here.



This bowsprit is my second bowsprit though this one has been on the boat for a few years. I made the original bowsprit round in spite of the plans calling for a plank bowsprit. It didn't take long to figure out that a round, varnished, wet bowsprit is a slippery item indeed. After the highway "incident", i took the opportunity to build a new plank sprit. New trim paint was take was needed here.



The sprit is a little longer than it needs to be. I left it long so I could practice my swan dives.

 

The stick and rudder.

Sorry, wrong industry. The Tiller and Rudder. Nothing major here either. Re-varnish and re-paint with the new trim color. It will be nice to have all of my trim the same color again.

 

Answering the original question, if in saltwater and you going to leave boat in it for more two days at a time you are going to save yourself a lot of work not having to scrap it later. Great boat, glad you own it. I think it looks on other people's boats.

 

On second thought on a small boat like that a copper cladding would be nie and not that expensive.

 

mydauphin,

My question was somewhat rhetorical and was mostly a childish, emotional outburst caused by the amount of effort it envolved in repainting the bottom of my boat. I have considered the use of an anti-fouling, but the boat has spent less than a week of over-nights on the hook. Three days was the longest. I have pondered the use of a self-adhesive copper foil tape as an anti-foulant. Even on a small boat, that might still be a significant investment.

More bottom talk tomorrow.