Boat Yard Blues

[windjunkee]

Good morning all,

Well, my partners and I pulled "Voice of Reason" from the water last thursday. We bought her in February and we're doing some upgrading to make her a little more competitive in racing. We've got a new Kevlar #1 genny from Ullman, upgraded the running rigging and bought a Navtec Hydraulic Backstay Tensioner which we have yet to install.
She's in the yard right now. We're putting new bottom paint on her. The good news is that, as a 35 year old boat, her bottom is surprisingly blister free. Gotta love those tough Ericson hulls. The bad news is that it appears that the prior owners have just slapped one coat of bottom paint after another, after another, after another .... (you get the point). The paint was so thick that there WERE bubbles/blisters, but they were in the paint, not in the gelcoat. As we're putting a smooth, hardshell racing bottom on, we had to take most of the paint off. WHAT A JOB. After four VERY long, VERY hard days, we got through many, but not all, layers of the old paint. The yard had quoted us at least $2,500 for them to do the prep work on the bottom. We thought that was a bit too pricey and chose to do the work ourselves. In hindsight, their quote was a BARGAIN. By friday, I couldn't lift my arms over my head. By sunday, I wanted to curl up in a ball, rock gently sucking my thumb and watch someone else do the sanding.
After much long and interesting reseach, I had chosen to go with Interlux VC Offshore for the bottom paint. When I went last week to actually buy the paint at the local West Marine, I learned that VC Offshore is illegal to sell in California. Go figure! A little more quick research and I elected to go with Pettit Trinidad, which is also a hard paint that can be burnished/wet sanded very smooth.
I'll let you know how the painting goes.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E32-2 Hull #134

 

[Sean Engle]

Wow - Do you have some pictures (how many coats are we talking about)?

//sse

 

[windjunkee]

here are photos of the haul out, including an intermediate photo of the bottom after only 3 days of sanding and grinding, and a photo of the boat right before she was dropped back into the water.

We had the yard spray Pettit Trinidad on the bottom. They did a fairly good job, though in good sunlight, you can see a shadow of the primer through the bottom paint. It is smooth though, thats a good thing.

For anyone wondering about costs, here is what we did:

The bottom paint had, apparently, never been scraped off or sanded down, thus it was very very thick. We found huge areas where the paint was separating from the gelcoat, thus leaving big bubbles or brittle areas of the paint, which was chipped away and we attempted to sand smooth. Given that we have real jobs, after 4 days of bottom prep, we called a 3/4 job "done". One of my partners bought "undercoat" which we applied to the entire bottom. It was not bottom paint primer and I authorized the yard to sand it off, prime it with the good stuff and paint the bottom. They sanded the bottom again, filled the "difficult" areas, primed and painted. We were in the yard for 7 days. The bill for their work, the yard time, the haul out and supplies totalled $2177.00.

WARNING -- Not knowing any better, I went to West Marine and bought two gallons of the Trinidad at $169/gal. They sold Trinidad at the yard for, I believe, $220/gal. Unbeknownst to me, they charge $50/gal if you bring your own bottom paint, so if you're in the same boat, see if there is a benefit to buying the paint elsewhere.

This is the yard in Redondo Beach, CA. The owners are friendly and helpful, the workers seemed efficient and careful. My only complaint is the $50 "corking" fee and what I perceived to be a slight under-coating of the bottom paint, even with two coats.

Sorry, my digital images are too big. I'll modify and post photos later.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E32-2 Hull #134

 

[Fencer21]

I Feel Your Pain

Jim,
Last year I hauled my E27 out for a bottom job, the boat yard told me the boat had been previously puttied over with a substance called "red-hand".

That stuff had blistered horribly all over the bottom, I thought it was the gel-coat, but they said the gel-coat was fine. They also stated, older boats (ie Ericsons) had meaty hulls.

After removing the old putty they resurfaced with the interlux system and it came out looking really good, not to mention the color-sand and buff of the hull-sides.

By the time it was all over the total cost was around $4,000 for a new bottom.

Good luck with the rest of your upgrades.

 

[Nigel Barron]

I guess I must have had the black sheep of the bunch. When I bought my Ericson 27, I had literally hundreds of blisters. After opening each one up and then letting the boat sit, tented for 4 months, we were satisfied that all blisters were evident and that the water was gone. After filling the blisters, and fairing the hull with longboards for what seemed like weeks, we applied an epoxy clearcoat with a pigment to make it easier to see. After that, Baltoplate, and then more sanding. Six years on, still no blisters. Working in a boat yard, I haul pretty regularly for a quick wet sand before races, and after seeing other boats, know that it was all worth it to be blister free.