More ticks than a mangy dog..

Yup - time for another one of those "more ticks" updates.. funny how they always appear just before launch date.. 😏

 
7/. A smooth off of her bottom - no idea how many years of antifouling paint on top of antifouling  paint there is down there, but while it's not falling off it isn't smooth either, so a sanding pole with some mesh and a bucket of water is planned... 

I bought some 60 grit sanding mesh this year, as the stuff I used last year was too fine a grit and was only doing a partial job, but either the stuff I bought was rubbish, or it was too coarse, but either way the experiment was an abject failure. 

I wondered if the antifoul had dried out too hard over the winter as the 60 grit was just skidding over the surface rather than biting, but when I went back to the old stuff it was working fine so I have a suspicion the stuff I bought is rubbish. No worries a couple of hours with the old stuff and she was a little smoother, still looks like the surface of the moon in places..  I'd really like get her soda blasted and taken back to surface, but we shall see. Either way I'm calling this one done for this year..

Not on the list this year, but as I'd just done a smooth off of the bottom and not yet got the paint rollers from Amazon I needed for the antifoul, I thought I'd giver her an acid wash as the water line was looking a bit brown, stained and dingy.

Once again the Oxalic proved little short of miraculous ..  amazing stuff..  mixed it with some wallpaper paste to give it a little stiffness, in warm water, slapped it on all over, left it 10 minutes, and then lots of rinsing later, and the difference between before and after is astonishing..

That's Oxalic run off on her bottom, so definitely a job to do before you antifoul rather than after..  😀

While I waited for the oxalic to do its stuff, I applied Fertan to the bilge stringer - in these temperatures (typically 10'C'ish at the moment) it will need a good 48 hours to work, so the longer the better..  Once it's done it's stuff I have some spray epoxy primer to coat it with, and then I'll re-paint with bilge plaint - that's a job for this weekend/next week.

Then yesterday it was time for the last big one of the maintenance cycle for this year - the antifoul. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, what a sh*tty, horrible job this is, though changes introduced over the last few years are making this a bit easier, and certainly a bit quicker..

Masked... 

As per last year I went with 6" rather than 4" rollers again, but I could only find foam ones rather than the soft pile I used last year - of the two, the soft pile are a better choice I think, they hold more paint but also the coverage is better on a slightly rough surface. The cardboard sheet idea from last year also re-appeared this year - one, it's more comfortable than the hard core surface of the car park, but two it's easy to slide around on for when you need to reach the inaccessible bits between the keels..

1st coat on...

Actually timed it this year, I've always wondered how long it took...  masking up took 30 minutes (worst bit is the compound curve on the stern), 70 minutes for the first coat (always takes the longest), cup of tea, and then about 60 minutes for the second coat and removing the masking (which by the way is the the finest job there ever was - from out of chaos comes order 😃)

Second coat on, and masking removed..  job done! 😍

Boats look the dogs nadgers with dark blue antifoul...  😀

Packed up, tidied away, removed the copious spots of blue paint with some acetone (how does that happen?? I was fully covered, and had rubber gloves on, and still looked like a Smurf!), then wondered over to have a chat with Jolly Boy t'Other Dave who was just about to put his genoa on. Volunteered to give a hand, and within half an hour the genoa was up, and I was home and in the shower...  good day!