Hull Painting

                         

                                 Hull Painting above and below the water line.

Although it looks like most of the below described work was done this year it actually has been taken place over several years due to the extensive repairs onto the hull and other maintenance which I thought was required before even starting on the painting of the hull.

Also since the hull is made from wood the paint choice might look easy but it took some time to decide, lost of information from the internet and specialist I know through my daily work before a final decision was made for in my opinion the best paint for the boat.

I have chosen to go with International paint system.

Above the water line with Yacht primer, Pre Cote and Toplac, below the water line Primocon as primer and a later to decide anti fouling paint.

As can be seen from the next picture the paint was in such a condition that I took the decision to completely strip all the paint of the boat and start all over with a new paint system.

First step was to remove all algae and shells which had grown over the years onto the hull.

During the course of the hull repairs paint was removed where required and where old and new wood were joining the hull was sanded smooth.

After sanding the wood was protected with several coats of virgin linseed oil.

At a certain stage of above mentioned repairs the complete hull above the water line was removed from paint, scraping and sanded smooth followed by treating with linseed oil.

This year the plan was to paint the above and under water line, more or less the complete hull.

First step was to remove the linseed oil from the hull and sand the hull again smooth before the primer would be applied. This was not as easy I was hoping for since the linseed oil although it entered the wood also build up a layer on the outside of the wood, could not be easily removed.

Sanding was not possible since the paper was full within seconds. Only thing left was to scrape the hull clean again from the applied linseed oil.

After all linseed oil was removed the hull was sanded smooth.

Hull was then cleaned from dust and degreased with acetone followed by the first layer of yacht primer. The first layer was diluted with thinner to make sure that it would impregnate the wood.

After the first coat of primer one could also good see the deficiencies in the hull which are not so clear after sanding.

Those were filled with International Watertite filler, the spaces between the planks were not filled those will close naturally when the boat gets into the water.

All was sanded again to my satisfaction.

Than another 3 coats of yacht primes was applied as per manufacturer’s recommendations.

The following step was to apply 2 coats of Pre cote an intermediate paint between the primer and the final coat.

Before the final paint was applied the surface was lightly sanded with grid 320 to create a smooth surface. The final paint I used is TopLac white, 3 layers were applied.       

                                       Before

After

Before the boat will be launched another two layers of Top Coat will be applied, of course after first sanding and degreasing the present installed finished coat of paint.

The below the water line anti fouling was in reasonable condition but I did not know which paint system has been used therefore all paint needed to be removed.

First stage was to remove the growth on the hull.

Then from the complete hull the anti-fouling paint was removed with scarper and hot air gun which mainly has been done by my wife.

As can be seen, red paint, which I presume is the old fashioned wood protecting primer, most likely with led, I left on the wood since it was in a good condition.

After scraping came sanding, since it is under the water line the surface was sanded but not till a very fine grid, last paper used was with grid 180. For better access to the hull the propellers with shafts were removed as well the rudders. Both systems require attention as well which will be worked on in 2015.

First coat of Primacon was applied which was diluted with thinner as per manufacturers recommendations.  Than the small holes, mainly where the plugs for the rivets were inserted were filled with two component filler. I have used the International filler to make sure that there would be a good bonding between their materials, filler and paint, this way preventing the chance that there would be over time separation between the two.

Before the boat will receive its antifouling paint the hull, below the water line will be lightly sanded again and two more coats of Primacon will be added before the actual anti fouling is applied.

After all was sanded smooth 3 more coats of Primacon were added. Following pictures show the present condition of the boat.

One of the reasons I choose to use International paint is that the primer for the antifouling can remain for a long time unprotected and it is not required to apply the actual anti fouling paint within certain months or weeks onto the primer. This is required for most of the competitions antifouling paints, primer cannot be unlimited exposed to air.

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Air Inlet Into Engineroom

                                        

During the dismantling of the teak deck it became clear that water was going into the boat through the slotted hole in the deck near the steering cabin. This resulted that in my case the inside deck beam, under the deck house, was rotten away.

Of course there always will be the chance that water will enter this area due to the opening at the front of the cover, with rain or bad weather during sailing.

When removing the fiber glass panel’s port and starboard it was noticed that these were glued against support wood and on top of the teak deck.

At the same time it could be seen that a seal of silicone on top of the deck should prevent water from entering the opening in the deck. 

For me this is not the right solution but must have been a good solution when the boat was designed, not the same types of glue/epoxy available.

The disadvantage of gluing something onto a teak deck is that teak is a greasy type of wood and it is difficult overtime to keep a good seal.

  

The Fiberglass covers were positioned onto the deck hold in place and with a pencil the outside was drawn onto the deck.

From there measurements were made to decide the width of the slot into the deck.

Then pilot holes were drilled into the deck at the center-line of the too be created slot.

With a whole saw larger holes were made to be able to remove the wood for the slot into the deck.

Made a minor mistake in measuring and ended up by removing wood of the deck in way of the wet unit. This was closed with epoxy at a later stage.

The wood of the deck was removed between the two outer holes by means of the help of a multi tool.

Next step was to create a barrier between the deck and the opening by means of a fiberglass “box”. With duct tape a barrier was created between the deck and the slotted opening.

When all was taped close a wall was created with fiberglass cloth and fiberglass against the duct tape but also against the cabin structure as well as against the whole slotted hole, wood was completely covered with cloth and epoxy.

After the tape was removed a small thin ‘box” of epoxy was created into the deck.

Several more layers of cloth and epoxy were added to create strength of the “box”. Also to make sure that there were no holes between the box and the deck an extra layer of epoxy was added at the outside of the “box’ to make sure that there is a watertight seal between the two: box and deck opening.

When all was finished to my satisfactory the box was tested with water on deck and no water passed through, the lowest part of the ”box” is higher than the toe rail so the chance that water will enter the engine space with water on deck will be minimum.

The following step was to recondition the fiberglass covers, wood from the inside was rotten away as can be seen on one of the first pictures and the type of paint used was normal white paint.

After al was cleaned and sanded I noticed 4 mall holes and a bigger hole on the covers.

Placing the navigation lights on the cover the holes matched up with the mounting holes of the navigation light.

Inside was cleaned and loose materials removed and new support wood was made to fit.

This wood was glued with epoxy against the cover approximately 2 mm lower than the cover rim. This way creating space for a seal.

When all was fixed the complete inside was painted with two component paint as protection for not only the wood but the fiberglass as well.

Since I do not plan to permanent fix the covers against the deck house I have been looking into an installation which allows me to remove in not a too difficult way these covers.

Main reason for removing the covers is that once a year I need to protect the wood with Owatrol D2, if the covers remain in place it will be difficult to protect the wood behind the covers.

Covers are fixed with screws original from the inside.

The solution I have is to place the same type of rubber as between the deck house of the steering cabin and the cabin walls.

This rubber was glued with sikaflex, after degreasing of course, onto the wood in the inside of the covers.

This was done with staples and later a thin layer of sikaflex was placed over the rubber with staples. When one does not degrease than the sikaflex will fall off after drying, after degreasing it sticks to the rubber.

Before the rubber seal was added the cover was sanded and painted twice with sanding in between with two component epoxy paint.

The covers were mounted onto the deck house and with this type of seal I can remove them whenever I do require.

As can be seen from the below picture no seal was added between the bottom of the cover and the teak deck, this way no water will be collected between the two and I do expect with the above described construction that the deck and the slotted opening will remain intact over the coming years.

What is left now is the decision where to place the navigation lights on the covers which I do prefer since if there is a water build up between the navigation light and the cover it will not affect either of the materials. When placed where I did remove them at the corner of the steering cabin on the wood there is again a chance that the wood will be affected and will start to deteriorate.

Below some pictures of the navigation light mounted onto the engine inlet cover.

If any of my followers do have the same set up on their boat I would like to hear from them and if possible with a picture.

Keel repairs III

                                                             Keel repairs III

This will be the last update on the keel repairs since some items were not covered in the earlier blogs with regards to the same subject.

When the stainless strips are removed, most of them fell off by themselves, one can see that when they were mounted the last time that there has been not a full surface contact between the stainless steel strip, sikaflex and the ships keel.

  

This could also be the reason that the wood started to deteriorate at the point where the sikaflex touched the wood, open voids between the two.

Other reason could be that bronze or brass screws which have been used to fix the Stainless steel strips against the keel failed. In my opinion this created a “Battery” with the result that the screws fall apart over time and therefore lost their strength to fix the stainless steel strip against the keel.

With the removed strips wood was repaired where necessary as explained in earlier blogs.

We are now at the point that new wood has been inserted painted several times with primer for the underwater paint, 6 coats, and we could start with installing the stainless strips again.

 The strips had a lot of old paint and this was removed as well as sanded to make sure that a good contact would be created between the stainless strip and sikaflex. The sides were thoroughly cleaned as well.

During the cleaning of the strips it was noticed that there was some wasting of the stainless steel at the points where the keel bolts are positioned in the keel, which gives me the indication that the stainless steel is not 316 but 304.

When all was cleaned to my satisfaction the stainless strips were cleaned with acetone for degreasing them, same was done with the keel.

The stainless strip was 100 percent covered with sikaflex Seal and Glue and screwed with stainless steel screws against the wooden keel.

A large amount of sikaflex was pushed out between the two and this was removed.

Last step after removing the excess of sikaflex was to turn all screws a quarter of a turn, could not turn them anymore, to get a little more sikaflex out and create a small roll of sikaflex on the side of the stainless strip.

At this moment it could also be checked if there was 100 percent surface contact between the strip, sikaflex and keel.

 Last repair item on the keel was a small damage on the starboard aft bottom side of the keel.

 I could have filled it with wood filler but since I would like to make permanent

repairs and did not know how much wood was rotten and the wood of the  affected area was removed.

New wood was glued in and fixed with stainless steel screws, bearing in mind the grain of the insert.

At the same time some holes above the removed wood were drilled out and filled with plugs.

All was sanded smooth and painted with several coats of underwater paint.