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.

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.

Winter 2017 to 2018: Completing the Refit Part 4, Packages, Pieces, and 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.

Winter 2017 to 2018: Completing the Refit Part 3, Almost Ready for Paint

Completing The Refit, the Continuing Saga

Readying for the Awlgrip

October 28th: Calypso is in Milford Boat Works paint shed being readied for painting the Awlgrip on the topsides.  Work is continuing on repairing the vertical cracks in the gelcoat of the hull.  The work is shown in the following two videos.

The Starboard Side

The Port Side

As you can see the final coat of a surfacing compound has been applied in preparation for the primer.

Calypso is not going to be primed for several weeks because the transom still needs a significant amount of work.  The reason is that the spider cracks on the transom are caused by the sun's heat over time working on the flag blue color of the Awlgrip.  You can see these in the following photo.

The Spider Cracks in the Transom

Larry, and many other authorities tell me that the only color for a hull in the tropics is white.  I guess I'm still enough of a romantic to appreciate Flag Blue, so Calypso will be Flag Blue.

Normally, these cracks would be repaired by routing out the cracks, adding an epoxy-based filler, sanding smooth and repainting.  

However, according to Larry, the yard manager, the best way to repair, as opposed to fix, this problem is to sand off the paint, gelcoat, and undercoating.  This gets down to the glass/epoxy hull.  Then apply a coat of epoxy to smooth out and paint.  This eliminates the gelcoat and under layer that both dry and crack in the sun.

The Transom

As you can see from the video above, the boat has been wrapped up from deck level as part of the preparation for painting.

More when it happens.