Finally--the splash photo!

It's been a long road but Nellie went feet wet yesterday.  She passed her leak check--but not without incident.  Spilling water rudely reminded me that I still needed to install the heat exchanger zinc.  We ran her through her paces in the river without incident before returning to the yard's dock.  The winds are contrary and blowing up to 20kts.  Not an ideal day for the four hour sea trial home.

Antifouling paint job summary: We went through four gallons of Pettit Ultima SR60 bottom paint.  We used 1/4" nap paint rollers and where necessary, paint brushes, to apply the paint.  This gave us two coats all around and four,1' wide coats, on the waterline.  There was no paint to spare. 

Anti Fouling Green

It took two gallons of Pettit's Ultra SR60 to put one coat on the bottom, running gear and bow thruster, and two coats on the waterline. We even have a little left to put under the jack stands.

The 1/4 nap roller covers worked well. Once mixed the paint stayed mixed--they always warn about the copper falling to the bottom.

Weather permitting, tomorrow we'll get the last two gallons of paint on.

Bootstripe Day Two

After sanding with 320 grit we got the second coat on.
So much for a pint being able to do the bootstripe. The pint got us 1-1/2 times around. Looks like she'll need three and maybe four coats.

Bootstripe Beginngs

Started painting the 2-3/4" tall bootstripe today using Interlux white polyurethane. Interlux recommends sanding between coats with 220 grit. We used small foam rollers to apply the paint and then tipped it out with a paint brush. It's going to take at least three coats.

Coat Five: It's a Wrap!

Yea, I know, the fifth coat was supposed to be white. Here's the story--it took 1-1/2 gallons to finish up today; one gallon of white and half a gallon of grey. Who said Interlux 2000E only comes in white and grey? It comes in light grey too ;-)

So here's what we learned after applying five coats of Interlux 2000E:

Walmart's 1/4" nap rollers work great
Mix only enough 2000E to do 1/2 the hull (about 1 gallon)
Lightly Sand the hull between coats
Alternate the color of each coat
Used new pans ($1 each at Dollar Tree), roller covers ($6 for 2 at Walmart) and brushes ($1 each at Dollar Tree) with each new load of 2000E
Put new tape along the waterline after each coat
Sand the the ridge smooth at the waterline after each coat.

Coat four: Grey Day

An hour of sanding finished up the fairing job. We only used 1-1/2 gallons of Interlux 2000E today. The first three coats took 2 gallons each. Got a forth coat on the prop and the first coat on the bow thruster.

Removed the Vetus 95's zinc.  That's something I wouldn't want to do in the water: two Phillips screws release the prop; push the prop's drive pin out of the shaft; then two Allen wrench screws release the zinc.  That's a lot of little pieces to lose.  The Zinc isn't too bad but does need to be replaced.

One layer of Interlux 2000E mic's out at 0.001" (I measured a layer which peeled off the plastic paint roller pan).

Pink Mostly Off

How hard can it be to remove Awlgrip's two-part filler? As it turns out, really hard. We spent 3-1/2 hours sanding away with 5" random orbital sanders using 80 grit and only got 3/4 of the hull done. John Niccolls, Knock Off #66, pointed out that the reason flat paint is so popular is that it doesn't show the voids in the underlying structure. The Interlux 2000E barrier coat is very shiny. Thus the more we put on, the more obvious the voids became. The good news is that ablative bottom paints aren't shiny! I've got to remember the mantra--better us the enemy of good enough.

The yard is moving Nellie to a new location so I asked them to reposition the stands and blocking. We'll be able to get the whole bottom barrier coated now. Cool.

Sanding and Pink On

I'm pleased the way we're able to feather multiple layers of Interlux 2000E together just below the top of the bootstripe.  We've been careful not to touch (i.e. scratch) the green Awlcraft above the bootstripe.  The successful feathering means the surface of the shiny, white bootstripe should look nice and smooth.

While we thought we'd be applying the forth layer of Interlux 2000E today, we didn't.  We were both seeing a lot of sanding divots and thought it best to fill them.  Thus it was another day of 'pink on'.

Coat Three: White Again

Despite hurricane Andrew coming up the coast we get the third coat on today. It took about 3-1/2 hours.

While sanding isn't required between coats, the hard, little nubs of detritus require it.

We went through another two gallons today. Looks like the whole job will take 10 gallons; plus some to put on the areas the stands are currently covering. We changed out roller pans, roller covers and paint brushes between each gallon. On the last coat we didn't have to do this. I'm sure it's today's higher temperature that is making the difference.

Slowly working each barrier coat layer up towards the top of the bootstripe is working well. I was concerned about ridges in the boot stripe but sanding after each coat is smoothing things out.

Coat Two: A Battleship Grey Day

Today we began by sanding down the ridge of 2000E left behind when the bootstripe masking tape was removed. As the picture above shows, the 2000E ends just beneath the upper side of the bootstripe. Thus it's important that the transition between the 2000E and bootstripe be as smooth as possible.

To my surprise we used two gallons of 2000E today. While we could have gotten away with 1-3/4 gallons it was nice to have extra to go back and thoroughly cover voids and pinholes.

I'm disappointed in my fairing job. The shiny 2000E makes every void obvious. A long board rather than a random orbital sander should have been used.