BOTTOM FACTS
When we were in Tobermory getting things ready to set out we investigated long term anti-fouling for the bottom of the boat. We were convinced by the blurb for the coppercoat antifouling, which promised years and years of no need for the annual anti-fouling saga. We spent months in the boatshed at Corpach getting the hull ready as the preparation was quite arduous as there was no grit blasting permitted there, and all the old anti-fouling had to be taken off by paint stripper. It was a foul, messy, and exhausting business. We then applied the coppercoat as per instructions and felt quite pleased with ourselves.
Until last year when we were lifted here in November and found large patches had separated from the hull. Discussions with the firm gave us what to do, except the importing of the stuff from the UK is prohibitively expensive as it is classed as dangerous cargo. We were able to source what we needed locally from someone who had just done his boat and had some over.
Imagine our dismay on this lift when we find things are still pretty bad in places and also that we had a bad attack of coral worm. This was after we had had an interim underwater scrape in Gozo in the summer when we had collected so much weed we could not go over 3-4 knts. So it has now become a real problem. The cost of the stuff and the additional cost of the carriage is making it a nightmare to consider, and it is not performing here in the Med at all. So it is back to basics – it all has to come off and start over with the conventional. We have been inspecting all the boats as they are lifted out and trundled past us in the travel hoist – they are all better on the conventional than we were on the expensive stuff.
To clean the hull means to get it back to the bare metal, and this means grit blasting. We had it gritted 16 years ago, so all the accumulated coatings were there to come off. Once it is blasted it has to be painted with at least one coat of primer immediately, like in minutes, before the rust starts. So the day came. Now in the UK at the last gritting, the chap turned up with a domestic pressure washer and a bag of sand and set to work. Which was what I was expecting.
Norman, the yard foreman comes by and tells us we need to cover the boat in plastic before the gritting. ‘Really?’ I ask
‘Yes, really. We do not want it getting on the boats beside you.’
That seems reasonable, so after getting instructions on what to do’ we set to work.
The task involved dropping sheets of plastic from the guard rails to the ground and taping them up. Sounds simple, but that is a lot of plastic. Now, my cost conscious husband spies some plastic on the ground near us where a boat has just left – aha, free plastic. So off he goes and drags it back to us. It does fit, but we soon find it has been used on a boat which was having the antifouling sanded as is covered in blue powder that gets everywhere. We pull it up over the guard rails, and as it can’t be taped to anything, bring up long logs and hold down the edges on the deck. Then more logs for the bottom. Meanwhile, the wind is getting up and the whole contraption starts billowing in the breeze, so the bottom logs have to be re-enforced with large slabs of rock fetched on the sack trolley. The joins can’t be taped as the powdery surface won’t stick, so it has to be hosed down. Eventually I walk around the whole thing with a roll of tape to try and stop the billowing out, cable ties are used up on the guard rails to re-enforce the logs. This has taken most of the day, and we are now enclosed in plastic like an entry in the Turner prize art competition. And we are very blue, and very tired. All night we have flap, flappity flap but are pleasantly surprised to see it is still in place the next day. I am still bemused that we need all this preparation.
7.30 in the morning and there is the loud noise of vehicles approaching the boat. Looking out we see a pick-up truck with a crane towing one of those large compressors you see in roadworks places. Next thing is the truck is unloaded – long, thick hoses are laid out, a large hopper and sieve appear, and a very large cement bag of very black grit is lifted off the truck by the crane. The two lads with the truck start joining everything up, and eventually the boss returns with another huge bag of very black grit. The set-up is inspected and things are about to start.
‘You won’t want to stay here’ says the boss man
‘Oh?’ says I
‘Very noisy and dusty’ says he
‘OK’ says I, thinking it cannot be as bad as the grinder and sanding machines. Wrong.
From behind the truck appears a figure more akin to a deep sea diver, complete with helmet. He has thick padded overalls and top, gloves and a helmet thing with a glass face plate and is toting his air hose behind him. This is not going to be a bag of sand job. It has been decided the best for us will be a dry grit blast and off they go. Deep sea diver disappears under the plastic, the compressor winds up and then there is the most ear spitting din I have ever heard as the grit start to blast out of the hose. We run half way up the boat yard before we can hear each other, the gate guard shuts his door but still can’t hear his TV, and we realize why they wear ear plugs under their ear defenders.
The we notice the fine dust escaping from the plastic, and when the first hopper of grit is finished we go in and have a look. The gritted surface is amazing, the ground is covered in black grit and I am glad we elected to have them clear up. The plan is half the boat done the first day, half the second, so we can get the paint on in time. We have seconded help from a chap here we have made friends with, and once the gritters pack up for the day, they get straight to work. I go up on board to make a cuppa and get the shock of my life.
The whole of the deck and the cockpit, everything, is covered in an inch of black grit. Everywhere is black. No one mentioned this part of it and I must say I was at a loss for some time as to what to do. It was too much to sweep up, and too much for my little car vacuum. Best plan was to clear an entrance into the cabin and not do anything till it was all over. At least I had shut the hatches or we would have had a cabin full of grit instead of just being dusty. The cockpit was worst as we had had to have some blasting done in the back locker where the rudder had come out. Just imagine everything covered in snow – except it is black snow. Must remember that the finish it perfection itself so it must be worth it. Just.
Next day 6.30am we are greeted by the roar of the gritter again – it is better in the boat than outside – and off we go again for the second half of the drama. At last it is over and the clear up begins. A broom starts sweeping off over the side, and then we are lent the air hose to get the worst of it off the fore deck and all the stuff we had stored there. I managed to look pathetic enough in front of the management staff that I was leant the industrial vacuum cleaner from the liferaft servicing people over the weekend, without which I could not have managed. Needless to say we also had to airblast the boats beside us too, as they also had collected some of the dust. But at the end of it all there was a lovely bottom, complete with the strip around the waterline for me to sand off.
So we are in the process of painting and preparing the hull. We scrounged a gantry type thing for me to sit on and sand the bits left over, and Dave has been painting and filling for the last week – in all there will be 15 coats of various paints on it. It had better work. We have had some super heavy rain since, all of which helps clean things up, but I fear the grit will be with us for some time to come.
Now all we have to do is decide what colour the anti-fouling is going to be. Not a lot of choice, but it still takes days of decision making!
I think you need to upgrade to video footage and start a YouTube channel! Is the boat's bottom now as smooth as a baby's bottom?? :D
ReplyDelete