Finally we are at the boat in Galena, MD. For the past five days we’ve really started the work. The boat needs some work on the rudder, we’re going to strip and repaint the bottom and I would like to remove a knot-meter and use the hole as a thru hull for a deck wash down pump. Our days have consisted of waking up, doing breakfast together, doing some morning devotions and then trying to figure out how to do the work that needs done.
I’ve pulled off the rudder shoe, started drilling a new hole which I’ll need to tap in order to screw in a new rudder pin. One of the guys here at the boat yard says that I should wait until I have the boat in the travel lift so it’ll be easier to do the work under the keel. I totally get that, it’s been a pain in the butt to be working under the keel up to this point.
We’ve also started to strip the bottom paint from the hull.
It’s kind of a tough sell as to what is the best method. We’ve tried sanding and scraping. Scraping so far seems to be better but it’s still slow going. Three days and we’re still only about a quarter done. After the scraping is done I’ll have to go over and sand anyway. Pretty messy no matter what anyone says.
Once we get all the paint off the bottom and sand it we’ll cover it with a barrier coat and then put on a couple coats of anti-fouling paint. Plus a boot stripe. Got to have a boot stripe.