Antifoul, paint sloshing and pontoon bashing..

...the half day of yearly penance that is the antifoul application is done..

Obligatory before shots...

...and the after shots..  

...but what a truly sh*tty and awful job applying this stuff is, especially to a small twenty footer with a bilge keel cave.. but there's no denying it, boats look the dogs nadgers with freshly applied dark blue antifoul paint..  this is the best she'll look all season..  30 minutes after she goes in the water it all goes downhill on the looks front..  😁

..just the one coat this year as an experiment - most of the rest of the guys in the club do the same, and Sparrow's bottom is as rough as the surface of the moon so anything that stops further build up can only be a good thing.. I'm going to have to bite some serious bullets in the next few years on the maintenance front, and a serious scrape of her bottom is one of them.

Elsewhere unguents have been splashed about..

• the cockpit board lasted well after an initial treatment right at the end of last season but it's been a wet and wooly winter, and I noticed a few spots where it needed re-treatment so got the sander out and then applied some more preserver..  calling that one done..
• end of last season I two coats on the rubbing strakes and they're still good - calling that one done to..
• companionway hatches had two coats at the end of last season, are ok, but will get a couple more of which the first one is done - they're one of those serious bullets I mentioned above..  wondering whether to go the perspex route..
• while I had the sander out for the cockpit board, I also did the tiller pilot support and rest..  two coats later calling that one done to..
• after the major renovation of the tender last winter she's been stored all winter in the pen, albeit I turned her upside down to give some weather protection to the inside..  she picked up the usual minor scratches and scuffs on her bottom as a result of launch and recovery from a trolley on a stone surface, so I finished off the remains of one of the tins of black paint I had and repainted them - very happy with the keel reinforcements (nose and stern), by the way, still strong, and clearly doing their job..

This update is almost turning into a "more ticks than a mangy dog" post.. 😏

Either way - still to do - in no order of importance

• finish the cockpit hatches, one or two coats will do it, and then they need to go back on the boat
• a final coat on the companionway hatches
• a surface coat on the companion sliding hatch and forehatch
• an oxalic wash down of the hull after I've given the usual scuffs and scratches a rub down with fine wet and dry
• a damn good wash of the top sides to get a winters worth of green and dirt off her

Lastly, I had a work party at the club the other day - pontoon bashing but not how you normally imagine it.. 😁

The club has five pontoons that we use during the season for occasional cruiser mooring, waiting space during lift out and in, embarking and landing lift out crew, tying dinghy's up to on race days, etcetc. They've been in the water for 10 years and were beginning to show signs of wear and damage so were lifted at the end of last season for some serious love, care and attention..  

This is one of the worst ones - were cutting out the crap metal ready to weld in new replacement stuff..

..and at the end of a hard day this is one of the ones we were working on (following)..  this is 80 or 90% done, each of the floats has been attached with two boards underneath, to galvanised metal right angled shoes, with 4 x 4's to support a through threaded bolt all the way from the 4x4's at the top through to underneath of the shoe, through the 4x4, and also through the end of the board - M16 nuts and washers throughout, all wood work bitumen'd.

Just the fender boards to attach and this one will be done - you can see the new boards in the background of the picture above. Hugely rewarding but hard day..  I ache this morning!