April 13 - 25 -- Ten Work Days with One Scary Minute

Eight of the ten days involved applying paint to the bottom.
First six coats of grey Interprotect 2000-E barrier coat to prevent salt water from seeping into the fiberglass. It is a two-part plastic which needs to be mixed three parts to one in buckets with measurements on the sides and, after stirring and adding a bit of thinner, let to "set" for 20 minutes before applying. The one gallon can has three quarts and the kit includes a one quart can of the other part. So if you have some left of one and not the other, as will invariably be the case, you have not followed the recipe exactly. And any that is mixed and not used promptly is wasted, so I was fortunate to mix up the right amount with very little left in each "pot" at the end of each coat. Only the special heavy use areas got six coats -- the leading edges of the bow, keel and rudder, with the rest of the boat getting four coats. There is a six month maximum time limit between coats before you have to sand the last coat so the next will hold to it. This applied only to the aft end of the boat, which I had done two years ago, and only to those areas there where the blue ablative bottom paint had washed away. But there is a critical and short timing interval between the last barrier coat and the first coat of blue Micron CSC copper-laden, anti barnacle bottom paint. (It does not really keep off the barnacles but reduces, substantially, the amount of them.)
Part of the reason painting took eight days was the need to paint the areas adjacent to the top pads of the jack stands. There is one "V" shaped holder under the narrow bow and three pairs of these stands along both sides of the hull. The boat's ten tons rests on its keel which stands on two large blocks of wood. The jack stands do not bear much weight, but each pair, connected to its mate by a chain to prevent them from kicking out, are there prevent to the boat from falling over in a big wind. For each coat of paint, each pair of jack stands has to be temporarily removed so the area under its top can be painted. And therein came the scary minute. We were blessed with dry sunny days and light winds so I did not mind letting the boat be cradled by less than seven jack stands, even overnight. But when I removed the most aft pair of jack stands, I noticed that the boat rocked back, onto the aft of the two wooden blocks under its keel and there was air, up to two inches of air, between the boat and the bow jack stand. Think of a see-saw! I quickly reinstalled the aft pair of jack stands, just aft of their prior positions and used them to jack up the aft end of the boat. It was scary being under the boat during this time. If the aft end had been a bit heavier, the boat might have come to rest on the bottom of the rudder, which could have damaged it. Next time: remove the mid-ship jack stand pair and reinstall it where the aft jack stands are now and then remove the aft jack stands and move them to amidships.
Another problem involves maintaining the proper viscosity of the paint. On a warm day it gets thicker and thicker while using it. A thick coat is nice, but if too thick there is not enough paint to go around. Thinning too much and it drips off the roller. And whatever thickness you started with will not be the same as you move along.
I also ran into a problem with applicators. I started with those foam rubber brushes, but they fell apart quickly. I held the foam rubber piece in my rubber gloved hand to finish the small areas involved. The photo below shows the handle without the foam, at right.

Next came a bristle brush, but the head, a metal band containing the bristles, came off so I ended up holding it in my hand without the handle. Finally I resorted to use of a roller. On the one I had used in prior years the plastic handle came loose from the metal rod that held the actual roller so it slid in and out a bit and rotated a bit. A new one was purchased but the plastic handle, made in China, snapped in half!  Finally a wooden handled roller was obtained, which lasted for the duration.

Here is ILENE's bottom looking grey showing a pair of jack stands, one at each side.

followed by her full blue glory.

Other tasks aided by Ed, included getting the AM-FM radio to operate again, installation of two replacement Bose speakers in the cockpit, restoration of the bilge pump, replacement of the engine's cooling water pump's impeller after two years of good service, and some frustration:
1. When the new basket for the raw water strainer appeared too tall, I cut off part of the top plastic hoop to make it fit. Then I called Groco, the manufacturer who explained that I had to fish out the bottom of the old one and that without the top in tact it would rattle. I should have called them before cutting! They would take off the remaining portion of the top and press on a new whole plastic top to solve the problem at no cost if I sent them the new one that I had cut with return postage. That's customer service!
2. Ed and I could not get the red indicator light for the propane relay at the switch panel to light up, even after replacing it. I have finally given up on this, for now; we just have to remember to turn the switch off after cooking without the red reminder.
3. I have had a devil of a time getting the right shackle to attach the anchor to its chain. The one that fits to the anchor is fine and it and the chain is made of 5/16th inch stainless steel. So far the stainless steel shackles that attach to the chain will not fit through the last link of that chain. I could get one of 1/4 inch steel but that would be creating the weakest link, literally. This one is a work in progress.

But ILENE will be ready to enter the water soon, after which less work days and more fun days.