Today is the big day ! I get to PAINT! I used a primer called Pre-Kote, blue painters tape and regular paint brushes/rolls.
I began by going over all the metal/things I didn’t want painted with blue painters tape.
I then just started painting, going from one side to another.
At the end of the first coat, it looked like this:
…which looks crazy good! And I didn’t think that it needed a second coat, but my dad convinced me otherwise. So I waited 2 days for it to dry. Then I did coat 2.
The boat ended up looking like this with both coats of primer on.
And I gotta say, I could not be happier that I listened to dad when he said that it needed a second coat.
Day 9 ended with dad and me finishing applying the filler to the port side of the boat, as well as with us running out of filler. Well, the other day my dad drove to Memphis (I believe) and bought a huge thing of it. So now we can finish doing filler. (For the hull at least)
The first thing I did was clean it and get all the dirt and sand that may have made its way over. I scrubbed it to where if you slide your hand across it, you would have nothing on your hand after.
After that, my dad and I decided we should lift it up and put it on saw horses. We did this with my mom’s help. We, then, got one of our tents and covered the boat with it, given the boat needed shade and also to keep the filler from drying as fast.
So we began, starting in the stern, and heading for the bow. We were off! We had pretty good practice from the port side, so we did much better and much faster than last time.
We finished with the filler, then sanded and vacuumed it (thinking that it looked pretty good). We still decided to go over it one more time with the filler like we did on the port side though.
When we were done applying filler, sanding and vacuuming it for the second time, we were happy that we decided to do it again since it looked much better and was way smoother. We now knew it was ready for primer.
After two long weeks of waiting, the FILLER finally came in! I can start working on my boat again! YAY
We used a certain type of filler called Marine Premium Filler, about a golf ball size of that and about 2 drops of Hardener and you get GELCOAT.
Now filling in hundreds of holes with gelcoat is no one person job, so my dad and I did it together, thanks dad.
My dad and I started at the stern of the port side and worked our way up.
When we made it to the bow of the boat, we decided that this wasn’t good enough and that we needed to sand it and go over it one more time. So we did.
After we sanded it, we put circles around the ones that we think need more filler/gel coat or sanding. My brother, Latham, also offered to help with the sanding.
When we finished sanding and applying more gelcoat, it looked much better and were happy that we decided to do it again.
You may have noticed that we moved the boat from inside our garage on a sawhorse to our driveway floor… What happened was we tried to move it to the back corner of our driveway, keeping it on the sawhorse, and while we were moving it, the sawhorse legs moved and we dropped it! And the boat was just too heavy to pick back up so we just worked on it on on floor. It doesn’t look like there is much damage to the top of the boat. We will move it when we have more help.
Another thing that stinks is that my dad didn’t order the right amount of gel coat, so we have to wait another two weeks for it to come in. But at least I’ll have time to focus on other things…like Boy Scouts.
Today, I decided that it was about time to go get all the stuff that Mr. Joe has that goes with the sailboat he gave me, including the sails, etc.
These are the two main sails Mr. Joe had that went with the boat. I believe the blue one is the primary main sail, and the red one is the secondary main sail. I believe the blue one is the primary mainsail because it has little wood planks inside it.The Mainsails were 16.8-10 feet.
Not only did Mr. Joe have two main sails, he also had two identical Jibs as well! These two are in spectacular condition too!
Along with the sails, Mr. Joe gave me something that I thought was a boat cover, but thanks to Jim Haddock, a member of the Sweet 16 Sailing Group, I know that it is a Spinnaker! Mr. Joe also gave me a case for one of the Jibs and Mainsails.
He also gave me a tiller!
Thank you, Mr. Joe, for the sailboat and all the things that you gave with it. I look forward to taking you out in it.
At this point in time, the boat is underway and almost ready for the gel coat! Only one/two steps left -the clean up. Today I was kind of excited to be honest. Because today I get to use acid! The acid we used is called Acetone Finish 1, and I pretty much used the entire 946 mL bottle.
What I did was put the Acetone Finish 1 in an aluminum tin, got an old sponge that my mom didn’t really care about and dipped the sponge in the container and washed the boat with it. The boat (at this point) has already been vacuumed, so It doesn’t have any loose dirt and stuff. After I finished washing the boat with the Acetone Finish 1 (by wash, I mean I put the corner of the sponge into each hole that has been dremeled and cleaned it), I vacuumed it one more time. I then got another aluminum tin and filled it with water and another sponge. This one was nicer, and I proceeded to scrub the entire boat…hard! When I was finished, you could put your hand on top of the boat and wipe it a cross the the entire boat and your hands will have no fiberglass sand on it what so ever. My arms and shoulders were aching. I was very happy with how it turned out. And I was quite confident that we were not going to get any air bubbles when we put the paint on.
This is me with the old sponge & acid cleaning each hole individually.
I am now vacuuming the boat using a prop of a smaller vacuum duct taped on.
I am now scrubbing the boat trying not to use too much water since the holes are unprotected.
The boat is now nice shinny, and clean ALL READY for some gel coat that is supposed to come in the mail tomorrow.
This was probably one of the less timely days, but it was definitely one of the most important.
Oh shoot – I forgot to mention that while I was scrubbing the boat with water, my dad found out that if you follow/trace over what you scrubbed with a paper towel/rag it would help clean it and or clean it better. So yeah, my dad gave me a hand. Thanks Dad.
As you know from reading Day 5, at this point the boat is flipped over, so the bottom is right side up. Today Dremel Destruction has BEGUN! Some of you may not know what Dremeling is. A Dremel is the gray tool in my hand in the photo below. It simply opens up fiberglass cracks, so you can fill them with gel coat (that is what it is to my understanding).
I started each day relatively the same I sanded one side and then I dremeled that same side. I did one side a day. Day 6, I sanded and dremeled the starboard side, and Day 7, I sanded and dremeled the port side.
This took way longer than expected. I probably spent around 30-35 min sanding, and around 40-45 min dremeling each day. Gladly I had some headphones so it wasn’t crazy bad.
Surprisingly, I can’t seem to find anymore photos of me doing the Starboard side from Day 6, I could only find the two top photos from that day. So that is why there are only photos of me working on the port side.
Today was really the same as yesterday. I just sanded, sanded, and sanded. I sanded the floor. Mainly using the Detail Sander because the floor had more lines, curves and such. I also sanded the lower walls and back walls, along with the centerboard trunk. When I finished sanding I vacuumed it with a Shop Vac.
With the top side done we got out two saw horses and flipped the boat over. Readying for the next day of work.
Another day in the books! I titled this post “The Sand Man”, because that just about tells you everything I did today, Sanding, Sanding, and Sanding.
I Sanded, Sanded, Sanded starting on the Port and rotating from there to the stern onto the Starboard.
I used three different types of sanders. I started with the Band Sander, I thought it would be the best since it sands the most at a time and was the newest. However, it turns out to be the worst out of the three types because it was heavy and hard to control. The next one I used was the Palm Sander, it was not heavy, easy to use, and I had plenty control over it. Sadly it broke. I believe it was because of how old it was, but I also read that fiberglass is very tough on sanders.
For the corners and hard to reach spots, I used a Detail Sander which worked pretty well.
After I finished sanding, I used a Dremel Tool to clean out each pit and crack. This was quite tedious, but should create a clean surface to where I will apply the gel coat filler. I later went over it with my dad and cleaned the inside and top of the boat.
I planned to do all of this while reading a book called “Fix it and Sail” by Brian Gilbert. However, I am not a very patient person so I have gone and watched a dozen or so YouTube videos to get to where I am today since the book has not come in yet.
Hand Sander – Dremel Tool – Sponge – Hand Sander – Detail Sander – Band Sander
