Deck is almost done....

Well it is starting to look like a sail boat more and more. Thanks to Joe helping many hours we have most of the hardware back on the deck. The rub rail is on as well. Port side took 5.5 hours but we did the starboard side in about 3.5. We got the winches on as well. I really like to the look without the life lines and I am considering leaving them off. The only things left to do on the deck are the life lines, bow pulpit, bow light, front plate for where the fore stay attaches, and the pieces that route the dock lines. There are some good before/after pics if you look at some of the earlier pics of the progression. Hoping to be in the water by mid January 2010 as I think I will not make my previous deadline of December 25th.

Painted

Thanks to Jon the majority of teh paint is done. He sprayed the second coat today and it looks awesome. I really wish the boat was not under my trees and that it would stay lookin so clean. Either way here are some pix of it painted. Hopefully I will get the deck and seats textured this week.

More pix from last week

Just a few action shots from last week. The first coat of paint went on today but I do not have pix up yet.

Here are some pix of the primer experience. Joe the gnome was there as usual, as was my friend jon .......The boat transformed today as my patchwork repairs and years of weather were covered over and made to look uniform. I took a lot of pix but only will post a few. It looks like a whole new boat and the pix do not do it justice. jon sprayed the boat; saving me a lot of work and making it look better than a brush would have done. If the rest of the painting process goes this smooth it will come out looking beautiful. after we were done it tried to rain. Only a few drops fell on the boat which did not seem to affect it at this point of the drying. Thanx for the help guys

almost paint time.........

Finally close to paint time. Hoping to prime it next week then paint it the following week. This also shows her completely up on the stands.

Just a few more pix

These are just a few pix of us getting the boat onto the stands. I need to take a pic of it on the stands. I am hoping to pain it soon and will post pics as that goes along.

Sanding off the Bottom

Few pix of the bottom being sanded off by the rare Gnome-Smurf....you do not see these often!!!

Rodgers Logo

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Just thought I might need to reproduce this so I took a pic. This is by far one of the coolest sailing logos as the "R" for Rodgers (The maker), is also a sailboat. Cool huh!!

Hull to Deck Seal Prep Work

So the deck is mostly ready and I decided it was time to start the hull to deck seal. This is where they meet as they are manufactured as two separate pieces and popped out of a mold. I hado to scrape teh seal to break the initial seal, punch through with a thin narrow metal putty knife, try to use a 6 in one tool that I ground down to fit between the hull and the deck till I parted it. Then I would shim it slowle as to not crack the fiberglass and then I would thouroughly scrape the old sealant off the pieces. Then I used a drill with a small flap, sanding wheel (80 grit) and vacumed all of teh old seal.

Naked Deck

Ok I know I have been slackin on the updates. I have the deck stripped as the pix show. Most of the major repairs on the deck are done and many of the smaller ones are done or have first coat of epoxy. I am using the brand MAS epoxy. I have the cockpit draind out and new ones to put in. I am having to adapt the hose coming off the drains b/c the marine store ordered the wrond ones but the seem like they wil actuall fit betteron the cockpit floor.

Stripping the boat

Just working on getting it stripped to sand and fill, and caulk, and sand and paint and sand....and a lot more sanding.

Maiden Voyage

Okay now when we look out the bedroom window we see a big boat. We picked her up last weekend. Joe, Kat and myself motored around dragon point and into the river. We sailed for about 3 hours and had a blast. That is one fast boat. Here are a few pics of that day. The boat went on the trailed fairly easy but getting the mast down was not quite as easy. Thanks to a fellow sailer (sailing a Catalina 22 named Godspeed) who was experienced at dropping the stick we got it down and on top of the boat. Many thanks to all who were on stand by to lend a helping hand and especially to Kat and Joe the gnome.