Fri 30 Apr, HHN day 17: Cooler today. Work on bow-thruster and sorting out new parts. Met Jeff, a fellow HR owner.

Very windy day, gusts up to 60 kts apparently. Glad we don’t have the mast up because I can feel the boat moving even without it! Temperature is perfect for outside work though.
Today I plan to seal up the holes where there had been screws holding the bow thruster bars in place. Each time we launch it’s quite a pain to put the bars back on and paint them. Then they don’t actually stop rope going into the thruster … and once rope is in there, mangled with the propellers, the bars make it all the more difficult to remove. And anyway, we always get at least one bar hanging off midseason. So, I’ve decided: no more bars!
But that means the holes have to be filled and sealed. Simple enough job it would seem, but ended up taking ½ my day.

First, sand off all the antifoul down to the primer coat. Why? Because I want to seal the area around the holes with epoxy primer and that needs to adhere to the base coat epoxy, under the antifoul. If I ever have to sand antifoul, I always wet sand it (or preferably get someone else to do it, using full PPE and vacuum sanding). Wet sanding is messy, especially on a windy day like today, but stops the nasty paint particles getting airborne and into my lungs (compared to dry sanding).
And while I know I’m going to get covered in blue, I decided to also sand inside the thruster tube and various small spots on the bow where we rode over the anchor in St. Augustine last year, and I had to dive to put underwater epoxy in the gouges.
And lastly, the bow thruster skeg to sand and clean up. Always tricky and messy to do, but I don’t like paint building up on it.

Once sanded and dried, I cleanout and enlarge the screw holes, being VERY careful not to let the drill bit bite and go in too deep. Last thing I want is to drill right through the hull! Then bevel each hole with a countersink bit, then fill with Six-10 epoxy. I use an old screwdriver to “twist” the glue deep into each hole. Finally, I tape over, to ensure the epoxy is left with a smooth surface to sand, and none of it drips out again while curing.

While doing all this, Jeff comes passed. He had contacted me recently to say he was planning to buy a Hallberg Rassy 46 that is currently in Herrington Harbour Marina South. We knew the previous owner, Ken. Anyhow, Jeff had read the blog and said he lives right next to where I had sent the Aquadrive to, in New Jersey, and it’s a shame I had to ship by courier. Well, I said, I haven’t sent it yet – I only got as far as packing it. So, Jeff offered to take it and deliver to the door a few hours later (thank you, Jeff!). How cool is that! First, I discover Authority Marine Propulsion via a Hallberg-Rassy owner, and now another HR owner has delivered my Aquadrive to them, free of charge. Such nice people these Hallberg-Rassy owners!

The rest of my day is spent picking up and sorting out bits and pieces I’ve ordered. Lots of work to get on with over the weekend now. You know, that’s the downside of being retired – you lose your weekends and holidays!