Boat Yard Blues – Part Two

I am truly in the swing of things on day two in the boat yard. The good news is the On & Off product helped de-wax the hull, one of the steps needed to properly prepare the hull for bottom paint. Next, I applied acetone to the hull to assure that all wax, from when the hull came out of the mold, was completely gone. After a good washing, I taped the hull off an inch below the boot stripe then applied a very light 220 grit scuffing followed by a final washing in preparation for the painting, which I feel is the easiest part.

Bottom paints are like opinions; there is plenty of each. There are several brands we could have chosen but in the end, I decided on Pettit Vivid for the bottom paint and their corresponding Pettit Skip Sand Primer. The primer is described as a “pre-treatment primer designed to adhere tenaciously to an un-sanded fiberglass gel coat.” We lightly sanded the hull anyway, so the primer should stick well. I applied one coat of the gray primer, then two coats of the Pettit Vivid (three coats at the water line).

It’s very satisfying to see the final result of all my hard work. Now we can rest easy and not be concerned with what is going on underneath the boat.

The nasty, but very necessary, job of bottom painting was completed within 48 hours. We stayed on the hard one more night to let the paint dry and we were back in the water 68 hours after our haul out.