Saturday 19 Oct, HHN day 8: On upper deck beautification part two with vinyl-wrap installed around the cockpit, and dusty jobs on the hull with sanding the holes and the antifouling.
Advanced Branding Solutions arrives early morning to install the vinyl-wrap on the blue stripe around the cockpit. More tedious job than yesterday due to all the angles and corners, but just as efficiently executed. We are over the moon with the improved looks of Cloudy Bay, somehow shiny blue stripes really give the boat that “new” look.
Yesterday we were doing a quick math of how much we spent in the past years with polishing and ceramic coating, trying to bring back the shine and the color in the blue stripes. Nearly fainted when we got the rough sum result! We should’ve done this wrapping two years ago. But at the time we didn’t find a supplier willing to sign up for the job.
Beautification completed on the upper decks, moving on to the dusty and messy jobs at ground level. Sanding around the four holes under the galley sink in preparation for glassfibering three of them closed. We need some new tools to complete this task and we head off to the nearby hardware store where (as usual), we are not disappointed. Glen comes out with new coarse sanding heads for the grinder, which later on he declares as brilliant. It takes him roughly 3 hours significantly beveling the holes inside and out ready for their glass-fiber plugs. And thanks to Ray, who borrowed us a vacuum, the engine room didn’t get too dusty.
Meanwhile, on the same theme of dusty jobs, a team of workers from the yard arrives and starts sanding the hull in preparation for the new coatings of antifoul. Six of them in fact, armed with full body coveralls and vacuum sanders. And they finish the sanding in no time. Did a reasonable job too. It’s one job we always manage to avoid. Painting the antifoul is easy, but preparation is simply a horrible job.
Once quiet outside, Glen moves to the indoors part of the same job, beveling the inside of the holes in the engine room. Well, the holes are indeed in the engine room, but he can’t access them from there. So from the galley corridor he leans down under the sink where he only just manages to reach the bottom of the hull. Jokingly comments “good thing you are around now, in St.Martin I got stuck in this cupboard and struggled to get out!”. I do remember the story very well 🙂
As the dusk sets in, the holes are ready for glassfibering. The workshop moves back outside, under a bright torch. A bit anxious for this stage of the job, as we need to be quick and slick for the epoxy resin not to go off before we finish.
All needed “ingredients” are prepared: round glassfiber matt cutouts, roller, resin mix, wood props to hold in place a piece of plywood which at turn holds the patches in place. Following Ray’s suggestions, Glen uses baking paper to install the glassfiber patches with. And as he builds up the layers, we giggle that it feels like we are indeed baking.
It wasn’t our slickest execution, but in the end we managed to prop it all in place, ready for cure overnight. And with the leftover of resin and more glassfiber cutouts, Glen filled the holes from the inside too. Whether we did a good job or not, we will find out when we redrill one of the holes. Till then, fingers crossed.
It’s been a non-stop job because we wanted to finish before the forecast heavy rain whcih comes in the form of a tropical storm from the gulf this evening. It is nearly 8pm by now and we haven’t had our main meal for the day yet. Finally we manage to sit for lunch …. or is it dinner by now?
It was a very busy but productive day. We really feel we are making progress.
