Nellie gets a sea trail of her her new tanks and exhaust system during today's 4.5 hour ride down to Phil Jones' yard on Hopper's Island. The purpose of the haul is to check the bottom, the cutlass bearing and the rudder shaft's packing glad. Nellie's underwater gel coat has been peeling off since before we bought her. Since there are no blisters in the fiberglass the approach has been to let nature take her course. One problem is that when the gel coat falls off it takes the bottom paint with it and thus we're subject to pretty fast flora and fauna growth rates.
Hard to believe but the bottom was last cleaned in May '11. It doesn't help that when the gel coat falls off it takes the bottom paint with it leaving the exposed fiberglass undefended against growth.
This closeup shows barnacles getting under the gel coat. The barnacles are actually doing us a favor by expediting the gel coat's demise. The sooner the gel coat is all off, the sooner we can epoxy the bottom and then barrier coat (Interlux 2000) it.
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