Sailboat Stripes Are On

Well, it took Ken and I a little longer than we thought it would to paint the stripes on our sailboat.  (Seems like everything seems to take longer - you'd think we'd learn).  But, they are done and we're really happy with the way they turned out.  This past Monday morning Ken taped the areas above and below each stripe to make sure we had a nice, crisp line.  I followed behind Ken and hand-sanded the area to be painted.   This was much easier than the kind of sanding Ken had done at the beginning of this boat project!  Ken and I then lightly wiped down the sanded area with paint thinner to get the area clean and free of any dust.  Again, this took longer than expected and it was all we could fit in for the day.

Ken placing the tape

Tuesday morning Ken started brushing on the Mar-Pro alkyd-based enamel paint (in dark green) which was mixed with 10% -20% of Penetrol reducer.  We were hoping that two coats would cover sufficiently, but we wound up needing three.  The paint needed three hours in between each coat to dry, so by the end of the day the third coat was on.  I had pictures of how transparent the first coat was as well as Ken brushing on the paint, but I accidentally deleted them!  I wanted to kick myself!  Anyway, by the end of the day we were exhausted from yet another day with a 105 degree heat index.

We didn't get back to the boatyard again until this morning, when Ken removed all the tape and I took these pictures.  We're really getting excited that our sailboat is starting to look like a new boat instead of the 23 year old boat that Nirvana is.  Ken did a great job with all the fiberglass repairs and painting!  We couldn't get any more done today because of rain, but we'll be back tomorrow. 

Now Nirvana is ready for her new name!  We hope to perform a "renaming" ceremony this weekend.  We'll then put on the new letters for Nirvana, along with the Catalina decals that we received in the mail today from Catalina Direct.  We sold our two-blade racing propeller this week, which allowed us to order the three blade propeller that we've been wanting. The new propeller should provide more control of the sailboat, which is more important to us than speed.  We ordered that today, also from Catalina Direct, and by the time it comes in next Thursday or Friday we should be ready to go back in the water.   We can't wait!

During the next week we'll paint the sailboat bottom, but first we need to install the thru-hulls and the speed and depth transducers.  Ken will also have to re-fill the strut at the bottom, since he had to remove the filler in order to tighten the strut bolts.  From the inside, Ken will replace the fiberglass that he "chipped away" in order to get to those loose strut bolts.  Then, ready for three coats of barrier coat and two coats of anti-fouling copper paint.  

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!