25 foot trailer sailer restoration.

Hi. This looks like a great place to put up pics and details of my restoration of my trailer sailor, and a place where I might get some much needed advice!

Its pretty old and I'm not even certain on what make she is. I believe its a Hi Way 26. Shes 25-26' long made of glassed over ply and has a 490KG swing keel. She has been in my family for 24 odd years. It was painted about 15 years ago with a paint brush and most of the paint job is now past its used by date..

Last time it was used it developed a bad slow leak when the keel cable snapped and the keel smashed against the back of the keel housing (a few times ) causing a crack. (very unnerving when this happens out on the great barrier reef a with no land or other boats in sight) The keel is sheet metal filled partially with lead.

We also had a problem with the keel not wanting to leave the housing which necessitated the use sledge hammer being hit onto it via a metal shaft to persuade it to leave the housing. This problem occurred because the partially hollow keel sprung a leak and it rusted out between the lead and metal causing big rust boils which jammed against the housing. (this is not an easy problem to fix, and I am in need of some advice on what to do with it, see this thread )

Both of these problems meant the keel needed to come out. Short story is we got it out and it was a pain in the *** to do. I will have some pics that might shed some light on how we done it at home next week.

Since the boat is now off the trailer, and we don't ever want it of the trailer again on dry land we thought we might as well paint the bottom half. When its back on the trailer the deck can be painted any time. After some arguments I finally convinced dad that the only decent way to get a good finish would be to sand the whole hull back to fiber glass and spray it. The paint was scored all the way to the glass in many spots and this sanding reviled a lot of damage to the fiberglass (delamination) where it had been scraped over rocks etc. We have spent many days sanding but its almost all done now. I am heading to dads on the weekend to finish the last bit of sanding and I will get some pics.

Anyone that has read this far has more patience that me

Cheers Dennis.

 

Here are some crappy pics. I spent most of the weekend sanding. Any tips on painting would be great. I plan on spraying the hull next so it can go back on the trailer. I have sanded it back to fiberglass. What preperations should I do next? What paints should I use, should I spray some sort of undercoat filler on? The boat will spend most of its time on the trailer, but the paint will need to be able to be withstand the boat being in water for a month at a time. Can automotive 2 packs be used?

Cheers

 

If you've ground back, through the gel coat (it looks like it) you'll need to barrier coat the hull with epoxy to prevent moisture from playing havoc with your polyester hull, especially if she'll have extended stays on the water.

I've not known of anyone using automotive paints, but I'm sure it's been done. The two part linier polyurethane paints will provide the best shine, hardest coating and likely the longest lived paint job, though it will be the costliest and most difficult to apply.

 

The boat is plywood and only has a layer of glass. I'm not sure the boat ever had even had a gel goat. It looked like it had heaps of layers of paint on it that seemed to be applied with a paint brush. All this was damaged all the way through to the fiberglass so we sanded it right back.

Do we still need an undercoat of epoxy?

Can this just be sprayed on?

Is this necessary given that it will spend 95% of its time on the trailer, but be used for up to one month at a time maybe once a year, and for a few shorter weekend trips?


Thanks PAR. I really need some direction here. I just need to know what my options are. Does anyone else have some suggestions?