Don Sr
New Member
I visited the family yacht this past weekend with the hopes of repairing gel coat cracks in the hull. I needed to remove the bottom paint so I brought a $19 DA sander and a hundred sheets of 80 grit. This was a much bigger job than I could imagine.
The boat is 19 yrs old and must of had a layer of bottom paint for each year. 4 hours later this is the progress.
My son at the 5 hour mark had an emergency at work and needed to leave. Only to seen again after sunset the rest of the weekend.
At the end of day two I finished the port side - by myself. Day 3 I thought I would just buff and wax the port side. Turns out after you remove bottom paint with 80 grit you need to insert a few steps before polishing - sand again with 220 and then 800 and then buff 2 twice because there was no way I was going to sand again with 1500.
Day 4 - do transome and guess what - a bunch of cracks under the 1/2 inch of bottom paint.
Thats a bummer - must be cracks at the chine and transom interior - nothing - I tapped with a hammer poked and pulled out every cushion and screw - nothing - the wood seems solid. I have another "professional" coming out this weekend to core drill the stringers and transom. He said the only way to tell for sure.
Oh well - back down in late march to finish the sanding. I'm going to keep the bottom bare.
One thing I did find was water that poured out of the drain hole in the bow. It also looked like it was coming out of the joint at the bow and duck bill. I stuck my hand into the chain locker it was dry but in the top of locker it seemed like another compartment. I didn't have time to investigate further. Does anyone know whats up on the inside of the bow?
The boat is 19 yrs old and must of had a layer of bottom paint for each year. 4 hours later this is the progress.
My son at the 5 hour mark had an emergency at work and needed to leave. Only to seen again after sunset the rest of the weekend.
At the end of day two I finished the port side - by myself. Day 3 I thought I would just buff and wax the port side. Turns out after you remove bottom paint with 80 grit you need to insert a few steps before polishing - sand again with 220 and then 800 and then buff 2 twice because there was no way I was going to sand again with 1500.
Day 4 - do transome and guess what - a bunch of cracks under the 1/2 inch of bottom paint.
Thats a bummer - must be cracks at the chine and transom interior - nothing - I tapped with a hammer poked and pulled out every cushion and screw - nothing - the wood seems solid. I have another "professional" coming out this weekend to core drill the stringers and transom. He said the only way to tell for sure.
Oh well - back down in late march to finish the sanding. I'm going to keep the bottom bare.
One thing I did find was water that poured out of the drain hole in the bow. It also looked like it was coming out of the joint at the bow and duck bill. I stuck my hand into the chain locker it was dry but in the top of locker it seemed like another compartment. I didn't have time to investigate further. Does anyone know whats up on the inside of the bow?
