Boat work is HARD!

Day 7, June 4, 2019.

Owning a boat is glamorous.... Said no one ever! Well, not a boat owner at least. 

Today we woke up at 7:30am, and after a quick bathroom call and face wash, I got to work getting the hull painted with the paint stripper. No time for breakfast!

You're supposed to leave the paint stripper on anywhere between 5 minutes to a few hours before scraping, depending on how many coats of underlying paint you want to take off and what the air temperature is.

Because it was just slightly under the ideal temperature and there were at least 3 layers that I wanted to scrape off, I wanted to get that paint stripper on as early as possible.

I just didn't anticipate it would take me till practically 12noon to do it all!

Our boat may be a 42 footer, but her hull has a massive surface area. Plus, the keel and rudder also need antifouling, which means it also needed scraping, which means it needed paint stripper applied.

It was a gorgeous day though, sunny and not too windy.

Who remembers the Fugees and their album The Score? Yup, I loved that album so much.

So I downloaded it onto my phone, plugged my headphones in, turned up the volume, got suited up and worked and painted and scraped and scraped some more... and when no one was watching, danced like it was a highschool disco again.

The boat has had several coats of antifouling on her already. Under the black layer there was a reddish brown paint, and under that there was a peachy yellow paint. Under that, there is a mix of turquoise paint and another black layer. It goes on and on.

If only boats could talk. I would love to hear its history.

Basically the goal is to scrape off the uneven parts so that we can go over the entire thing with an electric sander to smooth it out before painting the antifoul on.

Easier said than done. No part of the hull is straight so the carbide blade I have to work with is two inches wide.

At about noon, we stopped for ten minutes and had breakfast. I guess you can say it was cereal for lunch.

Then it was back to it.

Just as I was needing a big morale boost, enter Emily at 2:30pm. Emergetic, enthusiastic, no-nonsense, hard working Emily.

She was the one referred by the boat yard manager here. And she is excellent!

When I called her yesterday to see if she was interested in doing some work for us, the first thing she says is "I love manual labour."

Yup, I think we were destined to meet.

AND she's coming back Friday and Saturday and likely Sunday to help us get the two coats of antifouling on.

Matt spent most of his day examining the chainplates (we'll likely need new ones made up) and figuring out how to fix the rotten bulkhead.

After a consultation with the guy who owns the boat workshop onsite, the good news is the deck seems to be ok. And it looks like the rot can be fixed without smashing the beautiful teak shelf, bookcase and wall to the heads (toilet).

As long as there is good solid wood to bolt the chainplates to, which then need to be fastened to a solid bulkhead without compromising the structural integrity of the boat, we are ok.

Matt was also trying to remove the tang on the mast for inspection. One bolt would not budge and he had to borrow a tool to pry it off. See? Another example of a seemingly simple job taking a couple of hours!

The next big job is to take out the forestay so that we can inspect it before the mast goes back in. The forestay is attached to the front (fore) of the boat and keeps the mast up, along with the backstay.

In order to take off the forestay we must remove the furler first, the mechanism that furls (rolls) the jib sheet (front sail). Matt's been looking into that and how to do it carefully.

As you can see, one job leads to several mini jobs, often requiring more time and tools and $$$!

And that is why owning a boat is never glamourous.

Still, I found myself romantisizing about our new home today and thinking how much care and love we are pouring into her right now. All so we can be confident and comfortable later on when we get in the water.

I was truly having feelings of affection for her, talking to her in my thoughts... Maybe it was just all the chemicals and toxins getting to me. 

But I can see how it would be hard to part with your boat after years of tender loving care.

Highlight of the day: having my marina shower and scrubbing myself squeaky clean.

Dinner was late and with very little energy left, all we could rustle up was popcorn and cold chicken pieces. 

Pouring the paint stripper into my tin. Even through my mask I could smell it.

Emily and I posing in front of our day's work. 

About 3 hour's worth of hard elbow grease scraping and scraping.

Even with coveralls and mask and goggles and gloves, the stuff gets everywhere!

After 5 hours or so ... Not impressed. And probably needing to pee.

Removing bolts from tang. There was one very very stubborn one that did not want to budge. Matt borrowed a tool from our marina friend and managed to pry it out.

Here is a close-up of the tangs (metal fixtures on the mast). They are super important because they attach the shrouds (rigging wires that are connected to this tang) to the chainplates. And all of it is essential for keeping the mast upright and strong during a sail.