Monday, March 30, 2015

Sixty-three days later, out of the shed.

Ronin was rolled out of the shed, driven through the yard and placed on jack stands, ready for me to get back to prepping the decks for painting.

As expected, the color looked nicer, more bluish, when exposed to natural sunlight. Close inspection of the reflected images of masts on boats in the yard showed how clear and fair the hull was. Stunning really. A few nice words from the local watermen and others when she came out of the shed were appreciated.

Before we could move the boat back to her place in the yard we needed to move the keel. This is due to the fact that I am going to purchase a metal and fabric shed in order to finish the deck work and there’s no reason to put the rudder and keel back on. Much easier to work on for these old knees...

Charlie found some 1/2” steel plate, fired up the cutting torch and started fabricating some lifting eyes. I went home and grabbed a couple of the keel bolt nuts. With the lifting eyes attached to some lengths of chain, Charlie drove the Travel-lift over to the keel, I attached the lifting eyes and off we went to place the keel next to the mast.

Don’t drop this on your foot...

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After moving the keel it was time to pull the boat out of the shed. Pretty straightforward process but it sure looked better after coming out.

Before and after:

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After moving the boat back to her yard spot, I put a couple of covers over some open parts of the deck and left for home. It’s nice to have another major item ticked off.

Boat tractor:

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Perfect work:

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Back into the yard:

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Saturday, March 28, 2015

Well, It's time for me to get back to work on the decks.

Ronin’s hull is finished and painted. It was completed yesterday afternoon with the shear stripe being the last item painted. Earlier this week, after days of painstaking effort required to level the boat and scribe the boot stripes Charlie shot them with Awlcraft Carinthia Blue, which like the hull paint color, I shamelessly copied from a member of the C&C list who painted his boat.

Nonetheless, the amount of time that Charlie took to get the lines perfect was impressive. Like everything else, perfect.

We talked a good bit about the placement. With the boat fully rigged, water tanks filled and all the cushions and gear onboard, the waterline was right at the factory “copper line.” Because of this the white gelcoat just above the waterline was constantly getting stained and at times had growth on it. I was tired of constantly wiping it down as part of cleaning the bottom.

In the future we will do a fair amount of cruising and the loading will increase, putting the water line above the factory line. I thought that raising it three inches would be the ticket but Charlie was concerned that it would be too high and look bad. After thinking about it and trying to visualize what it would look like I realized he was correct. 

Final outcome is that we moved it up two inches.

Boot stripe taping:

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The paint went on using only two coats as compared to the three coats required for the hull paint, Another beautiful piece of work.

Boot stripes under the stern:

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I had originally envisioned using the same Carinthia Blue for the shear stripe but the more I rolled that around in my head the less I liked the idea. I felt that it would be too “strong” and take away from the light color of the hull. At the last minute I had the yard order a quart of Awlcraft Pale Gold and that was shot onto the taped shear stripe.

I think that the final product is pretty nice looking. Can’t wait until next week when we roll the hull out of the shed so I can see it in natural light.

Lot’sa gold...

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Classic C&C:

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Friday, March 27, 2015

A brief interlude from boat work.

It’s been a week and a half since the last post. Although a lot has been completed, there wasn’t a whole lot to actually see. We hosted our annual Sock Burning party to great success last weekend. Good turnout.

Chili, clam chowder, a chicken molle and a bushel of roasted oysters washed down with some good ales and wines. The day worked out well. No rain!

Food ready and socks to be burnt:

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Charter members of the original Sock Burning:

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Anyway, next year, same place, same time.

Monday, March 16, 2015

The paint goes on...

The weather provided us with a break and stayed reasonably warm with low humidity. With that weather window, the paint went on today, Monday, March 16th.

I showed up to pretty much to observe how an expert sets his tools, what good techniques are employed and to see the art of shooting AwlCraft. It was really interesting and extremely informative. Charlie explained everything he was doing and why. I stayed out of his way as much as possible.

So after three coats of AwlCraft 2000 in a custom grey color, I am really pleased. There were no problems or mishaps. The paint went on perfectly. Charlie was done by 1:00 PM.

So, to the pictures.

Washing the shed and walls for dust control:

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Solvent washing the hull:

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Mixing the paint and prepping the 3M PPS paint system:

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Last tack wipe-down for overspray and dust:

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Painting:

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And the final product, still curing….

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So, we closed shop and made sure no-one went in and ran their grimy hands across the paint.

Police line:

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So, another big project item that is on its way to being completed. Taping and painting the sheer and boot stripes will be next.

Week Seven - Almost ready to paint the hull.

 Well, we’re just about set to paint the hull. It has been sanded, primed, board-sanded, primed again and sanded yet again with the final sanding using 400 grit paper. Run your eye down the lines of the hull and it is smooth and fair. Ready to be washed, solvent washed and painted.

 Final, final sanding and prep:

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400 Grit Fair

I’m still working on the cabin sole project. I did some repair work in the bad routing edge in the main cabin pieces and set them aside. I ordered some 1/4” by 3/4” teak edge strips for the matchboard cutouts. While waiting for those to arrive, I started laying on the first two base coats of gloss Awlwood over a single coat of primer.

Having used regular varnish in the past I have to say I am already impressed with the AwlGrip product. It goes on well, flows extremely nicely and frankly, two coats look like 4 of standard varnish. It should because AwlWood is not cheap.

The directions call for the first two coats to be sanded between applications but the rest of the coats can be “hot-brushed” which will shorten the completion time tremendously. We’ll see.

Repair work:

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Primer application:

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Primer on the left, first coat gloss on right:

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Sanding the gloss coats:

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Adding the teak edging:

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Teak Edge on Sole

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Week Six - No break in the weather.

It has continued to be unremittingly cold in the Mid-Atlantic. Snow and ice with sub-freezing temperatures in March. I’m well tired of it...

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Charlie and I keep working on our respective tasks necessary for painting and the refit. Early in the week he worked on finishing sanding the second application of high-build primer and AwlFair fairing compound. The hull is, well, quite fair. On Friday I showed up to get some pictures and he had just completed washing the hull and shed in preparation for spraying the first coat of white base AwlGrip 545 Epoxy Primer.

Before leaving work to enjoy his weekend, he sprayed the hull. Things are progressing nicely on his end.

Washed, re-taped and ready for the AwlGrip 545 primer:

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As Charlie was working I spent as much time as I could working on the cabin sole project. Because of extremely low temperatures keeping my shed at recommended temperatures for applying epoxy was a hit-or-miss affair. I was able to tape the edges of the cabin sole inserts and apply West System epoxy to the edges. My wife and I had to run up to Annapolis for a day to attend a memorial service for the mother of a dear friend of ours on Friday.

Saturday the temperatures actually rose above freezing so I fired up the propane heaters and got the temperatures in my shed above 60F. After some more grinding and routing on the underside of some of the pieces, I mixed up some West System and applied it to the undersides of the flooring. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough to complete the work so only the main cabin floor boards were coated. I’ll get more on Monday. I have two gallons of System Three epoxy that hasn’t been opened yet but I’m saving that for another larger project.

Floorboards with epoxied edges:

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Ronin’s hull after the AwlGrip 545 Epoxy Primer application:

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The famous C&C star...

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Applying West System to the underside of the floorboards:

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‘Warmer” weather on tap for next week...