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Journal - Bottom Paint (2009) |
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Wednesday, November 25 - Monday, November 30th 2009 |
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Ventura Harbor Boat Yard |
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Okay so here we go on the first project which includes Anne. After all this time
Anne has not been a major contributor to projects on Mouse Pad either because I
had them done by a worker of because she has had a problem with grip of her
hand. Now that is behind us and I think she had more fun with painting than one
should have when painting the bottom of a boat. But Anne being a artist all her
life it was more fun than for most other people.
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Sometimes I felt that when I did the water line with the roller and handed it
over to her to do the lower sections I couldn’t get the roller back from till
the entire hull and keel was finished. Quite a little worker! |
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The process was easy...
- Haul-Out
- Preparation
- Paint Entire Bottom (2 coats)
- Paint high-use areas (2 extra coats)
- Launch Boat
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We had scheduled Mouse Pad to be hauled out on the Wednesday before the
Thanksgiving holidays. I had the yard do all the preparation work, sanding, tape
the water line, and primer paint where necessary. We would do the painting over
the next few days on a very lazy schedule and the yard would launch Mouse Pad
the following Monday. |
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Wednesday (2 hours)
Within 20 minutes of arriving at 9:30am Mouse Pad was up on the concrete and
being sat gently down on her keel ready for a power wash. After a good power
wash the guys took their mid-morning break and I had the chance to inspect Mouse
Pad’s hull and thru-hull fittings as well as that pesky white stripe down the
port side of the hull and keel. |
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Dale, the yards paint boss, takes a look at Mouse Pad’s bum and gives the thumbs
up. Mouse Pad gets tented and 2 guys go to work on sanding and prepping her hull
ready for us to paint. |
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Anne got out of school early as it’s the Thanksgiving Holiday, a long weekend
for her. So when she got back to her house we set out with a list of items
needed to be purchased before we can start any work… we will need 9in rollers,
paint pans, 4in brushes, latex gloves, and paint of course. |
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It’s off to Anne’s favorite thing “shopping” the friend who was supposed to have
called in the paint order didn’t, so it was scramble time, if we don’t have the
paint it was a complete waste of time getting Mouse Pad hauled. We went to West
Marin no deals there; next we tried a small local chandlery, Beacon Marine,
before shelling out $185 a gallon at the boat yard. Beacons’ had 1 gallon and it
was only $149 per gallon, I was so sorry I didn’t go to them first now. It was
back to the boat yard and buy 3 more gallons of B-90 paint from them. Now it was
time to go to Lowes, Anne’s second favorite store after Costco, more shopping
for the rest of the items on our list. |
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Thursday
Its Thanksgiving so today’s heavy work load is FOOD… no work for us today… |
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Friday (4 hours)
We set out early, well after all the food yesterday could you do any better? We
get setup and quickly get to work; the first thing was to shake the paint up. I
had forgotten how long it takes to mix paint, even with a machine to do the
work. Believe me when I say that this is an impossible task if you had to do it
with a stir-stick. It takes about 40 minutes before each can is ready for use. |
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Since the yard had done all the prep it was just a matter of pouring paint into
the tray and slipping it on. I painted a strip about 18inches wide around the
entire water line and took a quick break while Anne painted the keel. That was
the last I saw of Anne and the roller until Mouse Pad’s entire hull and keel was
a nice bright red. Except Anne calling out “I need more paint”. |
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We went over the leading edges of the skeg and keel and rudder with an extra
coat and cleaned up and called it a day.
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Saturday (1.5 Hours)
Today was a day set aside for just doing the “bits” painting. That is the areas
of most wear, the leading edge of the keel, rudder, skeg, hull, thru-hulls, and
around the water line. Each was to be painted at least twice today. |
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Sunday (3 Hours)
This is to be the day we do a complete coat of paint everywhere plus all the “specific
area” with a 4th coat. When we are finished we clean up the work site and
removing the tape line from around the water line. |
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Monday (2 Hours)
It's 8:30am of “launch day” for this haul-out and all the little “bits and
pieces” must be put back on Mouse Pad and everything readied for the crane and
water. |
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The tasks for today are small, I needed to screw the strainers back on for the
thru-hulls and give them another coat of paint or two. The support pads were
moved so I could paint these areas too. The guys lifted Mouse Pad just before
their morning break. This gave me extra time to get a few coats of paint on the
pad spaces and tip of the keel. It was 10:00am before the actually started to
move Mouse Pad and put her back in the water. It only took about 15 minutes plus
a couple of minutes for me to check around the shaft to make sure there are no
surprises. They lowered Mouse Pad the final foot or so and I fired up the engine
and I was off the dock and back to my slip and a job well done. |
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