Winter 2017 to 2018: Completing the Refit Part 6, Waiting, the Boom, the Bottom, and the Transom

Waiting

This is the first post for 2018.  Milford Boat Works is still in the process of getting the boat ready for painting.  Currently are still priming the topsides.  Parts are coming in and its cold and dark.

This is typical of the way most sailors feel, except for those who sailed south in the fall or fly south for a charter sail.

The Boom

Chris Ranney from Tartan Yachts sent me a couple of pictures of the nearly completed boom.  Here they are.  I plan to go out to see it on my way to Michigan shortly.

The Aft End of the New Boom

The New Boom Looking Toward the Aft End

Then today, today being Jan 29th I visited Tartan Yachts and saw the boom...FINISHED.   Gorgeous!!!  Here are two videos.

The Pocket Boom

(Held the camera in portrait instead of Landscape; oh well I was excited)

The Bottom of the New Boom Showing Attachment Points

As you can see from the videos, the boom is shaped like a trough so that new full batten North mainsail will fall directly into it instead of all over the bimini and cockpit.  This should make using the main faster and simpler.

Todd who actually made the Boom
(Thanks Todd)

The Bottom

The bottom paint of Calypso has been a problem since I acquired it in 2014.  The reason is that I couldn't find out what the paint was.  Most of you know that most brands of bottom paint are incompatible with other brands; meaning they will not adhere properly and flake off.  This defeats the purpose of bottom paints.

Larry and his team at Milford Boat Works found a water-based paint that would work for a year.  But that meant the bottom needed to be completely repainted every year.  On my old boat, Starwood, I only needed to have the leading edges of the keel and rudder, and near the waterline repainted; these are the areas of most wear on the paint.

In the winter of 2015/16, the yard personnel found that the keel bolts had slightly loosened; not good.  And there seemed to be cracks on the keel in the joint; again, not good.  So it was not surprising when the bottom was media blasted to get rid of the old paint, the some of the fairing material on the keel fell off.  This is shown in the following picture.

Keel After Media Blasting
(Note the Lead in the circled area)

So there was one more preparation job for the yard before the bottom could be barrier coated on painted.  Finally, as shown below the fared area was painted with a sanding primer, as was the entire keel (see a previous post).  This is shown in the following picture.

The Keel and Bottom After Fairing and Some Primer

Now is was time to paint the bottom.  The same portion of the keel and bottom is shown in the following picture. 

The Completed Keel and Bottom Paint

It wasn't just the keel and its connection that was painted, it was the entire bottom, after it was barrier coated.  The paint was rolled on instead of sprayed, which make the paint a little bumpy or dimply.  If the boat was to be used for racing at the highest level, that might be a problem.  

However, even when I was racing SV Starwood I rolled the paint on.  Having an ultra smooth bottom helps the speed, but one mistake by the crew can cancel out all of the speed advantage of a smooth bottom.  Since I'm using Calypso for cruising and since the cost of spraying might be up to double the cost of having the paint rolled, I chose the latter.

The bottom paint is now ready for the water.  I wish the rest were, but it's coming along.  Here are the two sides of the bottom in the two videos.

The Port Side showing the bottom Paint

The Starboard Side Showing the Bottom Paint

The new rudder has been painted as well.  This rudder has been much more of an effort on the part of the yard, than either the yard or I expected.  I'm planning a post on the problems with this new rudder in the future so that you might have some good questions to ask before you have one built.

The Rudder

The Transom

The transom of Calypso was filled with spider cracks.  You can find the pictures of these in previous posts.  In the last post, you could see that there was still a significant amount of smoothing that needed to be done before the transom was ready for paint; now just a little, according to Larry, the yard manager.

The Transom Primed and just about Ready

So now the boat is about ready for paint, then reassembly.

I suspect I'll be waiting until the end of February or early March before I can show you much more progress.  So I'll be waiting.