Winter 2017 to 2018: Completing the Refit Part 5, Epoxy, Priming, and more Parts

Epoxy (The Transom)

During the late October and all of November, the yard personnel did little work on Calypso because they were busy hauling boats for the winter and winterizing them.  Part of the reason that I brought Calypso over early was so that they could get as much work as possible completed before fall hauling season.  Consequently, I've really posted no new pictures or videos of the boat recently.

They are back working on the boat and will complete a good portion of the work before the holiday break.  They have already completed a significant amount work.

The Transom

As you might have seen in some of the pictures and videos in past posts, the transom needed some work; well it's begun.  The transom is a reverse transom and therefore sometimes points directly into the summer sun.

Since it's Awlgripped in Flag Blue, which is close to black, it heats up.  This heats the gelcoat under the paint and the gelcoat spider cracks.  I have pictures of these spider crack in a previous post.

The people in the yard sanded down the Awlgrip and gelcoat mostly down to the epoxy of the hull.  Then they epoxied a layer of glass mat to the surface as shown in the video about.  After some additional prep work including sanding, the transom will be ready for primary.

The combination of glass mat and epoxy had much less chance of spider cracks than the gelcoat.  So, the new surface should be much better adapted to the sun, especially in the Caribbean.  So if I go there...

Priming

All the rest of the topsides have had two or three coats of sanding primary applied as shown in the following two videos.

 

The Port Side in Sanding Primary

The Starboard Side in Sanding Primary

Additionally, the cracks around the keel have been smoothed out and primed.

Keel before Smoothing and Priming

Keel After Smoothing and Priming

After the transom is smoothed out the topsides  will need another two to three coats of sanding primer before its ready for the Awlgrip.  The Keel too will need two or three coats of sanding primer, but will be followed by a barrier coat and bottom paint.

More Parts

The hatch lids have come back from Hatchmasters with their new lens and are ready to be fit back onto their frames.  Here some of them are.

The Hatch Lids

It's likely to be early March 2018 before they are assembled on the boat.

The new rudder has finally emerged from its box, as Larry the Milford Boat Works manager and his team are starting to fit the rudder to the boat.

The Old Rudder

The New Rudder

As you might be able to see from the two pictures, the new rudder has a slightly different shape (slightly more hydrodynamic) than the old rudder.  Competition Composites Inc. did a excellent job on that part of the rudder.

Unfortunately, there have been a fair number of issues with the rudder post.  Most of the issues the people at Milford Boat Works have solved.  Still there is one issue important to me.  The emergency rudder fits onto a support passing through the center of the rudder post.  It's not there, so there will need to be more work on the rudder post.

Finally, the swim platform has been refurbished, primed, and with a few additional coats of primer will be ready for paint. 

The Swim Platform

Work will resume on the refit in early January 2018.