You know how it goes….it is supposed to be a simple, easy project.

I stopped to ask Kenny about marine “goop” compounds, so I can pick the right one when we install our new forward hatch.  After he answered, he asked if we were ready to be moved and have the boat lowered.

Ack!

I said something like “Uhm, it will take a couple days, since we haven’t done anything to put new bottom paint on the centerboard and trunk yet…”

By this time, we had already finished a bunch of boat projects, and weren’t starting many new ones — we were trying to figure out our plans for Burning Man instead.  All we had left was removing some leaking hardware and plugging the holes with goop, installing the new hatch, putting a cover over the hole where the main mast will go….and probably a couple other jobs I’ve since forgotten.

So this sounded pretty easy — just pick out some bottom paint, scrape the centerboard and trunk clean of mollusks, do a quick scuff sand, and slap on the bottom paint.  Of course, picking the bottom paint was an agonizing decision that took forever, but that was OK, ’cause we were doing other stuff in the meantime.

First off, we didn’t have the right sander for the job. The best and fastest tool would probably be a big 7″ or 8″ right angle grinder, but it just seems too big to keep on our boat. Instead, I drove Margaret nuts shopping for the perfect 5″ random orbit sander…after checking every store in town and combing the internet, we decided to order one online and pay for expedited shipping.

Then we had to haul the centerboard up so we could get better access to the trunk (from below).  Normally that wouldn’t be a big job, but we have a ballasted centerboard that weighs between 1000 and 2000 pounds. With the built-in purchase and one of the winches it goes up with a bit of a grunt.  But the deck was sagging under the weight, so we wanted to rest it on cribbing.

Cribbing is two-foot sections of lumber appropriate for railroad ties, very heavy stuff. You stack it up under the boat like Lincoln logs. Unfortunately, while fetching enough to hold up the centerboard, Margaret threw her back out.

The next day, the sander arrived and I started on the centerboard.  The sanding went well, except that there were these places where round bits of fiberglass showing through the paint.  What are these?  Blisters.  Yep, no doubt about it.  Blisters.  Some of them even ooze ugly liquids when I poke them.

Now the “simple” project had a major complication.  However much we wanted to just zip through this, we couldn’t slap bottom paint over the blisters.  So I told Kenny that we wouldn’t be ready to have the boat moved on the original schedule, and now the job was redefined like this:

Sand all the paint off, down to bare fiberglass.  Grind out the blisters.  (Hello to my old friends, the 4 1/2″ angle grinder and Mr. Dremel!)  Water wash and solvent wash everything.  This was the only part of the job I would let Margaret do, since the grinding and sanding is at an awkward angle for a bad back.  Oops! Missed a couple blisters, especially some deeper ones.  Grind out more blisters.  (Apologize to my poor wife for doing this after she already washed it.)  Water wash and solvent wash again.  Fill the holes with epoxy and expensive West System colloidal silica filler.  Run out of filler after doing one side and a third of the other.  Buy some cheap cab-o-sil the next morning when the yard opens.  Fill the rest of the holes.  Sand them all smooth again.  Water wash and solvent wash.  Fill again with Awlfair fairing filler.  Sand it smooth.  Water wash and solvent wash it again.  Put three coats of barrier coat on the centerboard.  (Somewhere in the second coat figuring out which rollers would work and that brushing doesn’t)  Put two coats of bottom paint on the board and the trunk plus the bottom of the keel.  Since the centerboard was a little awkward to work on, I didn’t let Margaret do anything except the washing to prevent further injuries.

Whew!  After all this, collapse for an hour or two.

While I was sanding, grinding, filling, and painting, Margaret had been doing other jobs or resting her back (recovered by now). And finally, Flutterby is in her new home, about 100 feet away from her old home, out of Kenny’s way, and about four feet lower. We are very happy with her new altitude!