Antifouling

The first job is a quick sand over the whole hull to allow the new antifouling to adhere to the old. We had been told the paint partly chemically bonds and partly physically bonds to the old and so cutting in slightly helps.

We had put on two coats of antifouling last year so I am slightly surprised that it had gone all the way through to the epoxy skin coat in places. I wasn't too pleased about that. It means antifouling will be a significant annual cost.

We had a little of the black left over so I rollered that over the places where it had gone through. This means that we should have three coats of antifouling on the hull now, and because the new is blue not black we should be able to see when it goes through.

 We had bought 'moon suits' this year as the antifouling is pretty wicked stuff and we think its prudent to be as careful as we can. Last year I got some on my skin and used thinners to remove it, only to find the thinners stung like crazy... hmmm.... not a good idea, moon suits are better!

Jacob (now 11) is wearing an adult suit, with masking tape at suitable places to hold it in check.

Having Jacob and me together works well: He does the lower reaches and I do the higher reaches.

This year it was even better we also had Tim about, cleaning the propellor and running around getting paint and a hundred other things to keep us going (like coffee).

The blue looks significantly better than the black. Tim and I are really pleased with the result.

By 14:30 we have finished. King Malu looks amazing again. On the other hand... I don't! 

I can hardly recognise myself in the photo. Showing the photo to family afterwards they reckon I look Egyptian. I don't really know why.

Even wearing a 'moon suit' googles and a face mask this is not a clean job! But... we did it in a day.  So that was very encouraging. It means we can do an antifouling over a weekend liftout next year if we want.

We still have a number of messy outside jobs to do. We want to sand down the toe rail. The varnishing of it didn't work and we want to remove the varnish and use oil instead.

10 days till she goes back in the water... must remember we have to do antifouling under the bracing points...