Summer Project

Yesterday, day 23, we finished painting the boat!! Today – we will finish the boat! We will start off the day by cleaning and putting the hardware on the boat, then my good friend, Mr. Sabatier, will come over and show/teach us how to rig the boat.

The first thing we did was lay the hardware out to make sure we had everything (took inventory). After that, we started to clean them. My dad has a machine that cleans stuff like this called an ultrasonic cleaner which worked great.

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To keep water from getting in through the holes on the outer walls, we used some glue as a sealant.

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While the hardware was being cleaned, my dad and I upgraded a few things…a new winch and a trailer wheel.

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When we were done with this, everything was clean. We dried them off and started to put them on; first putting the sealant inside, then attaching hardware.

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After the hardware was on, we took the tape off the sides.

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While we were doing all of this, the registration stickers came in and we put those on as well.

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After we took the tape off the sides and put the registration stickers on, the boat was looking spectacular! The paint couldn’t have looked better!

We took the boat outside and unfolded the sails. When Mr. Sabatier got here, we put the mast up and started rigging.

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He taught me three knots: the bowline, the stopper, and the cleat hitch.

I could hardly believe it, but the boat was finally finished! This was definitely the hardest job I have ever done and I can’t wait to go sailing!

Thank you for all the help, Mr. Sabatier and also, the Sweet Sixteen Facebook group. And many thanks to my mom and dad for the encouragement. And, of course, none of this would be possible without gracious Mr. Joe Castleman!

Day 21

In day 20, we finished the floor, the compartments, and applied the first coat of real paint to the seats and outer walls. We also ordered the ropes, and Mr. Sabatier came over. Today, day 21, we applied the second and last coat of paint to the seats and outer walls. After today, no more paint will be put on the seats and outer walls. This was the last coat!

As always, we started by putting a thin layer of 333 Brushing Liquid over the seats and outer walls using a cheesecloth. We then began painting starting at the back, moving our way up, roll and tipping, roll and tipping.

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When we finished painting, the boat looked awesome and shinier than ever! I couldn’t wait to put some color on this thing!

Day 22

We began day 22 by taping up the boat. We applied tape around all the spots that were originally painted pale blue (triangle at front, box at back, and stripe down each side).

We doubled up on the tape, making it wider than regular just in case we messed up. When we finished taping, we began painting. We started with the back box, then to the front triangle and finally to the stripe on the sides. We decided to use a dark blue color, called Sapphire Blue. I think of it as a mixture between Royal Blue and Navy Blue.

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The paint was a little bit more difficult to put on for some reason, so we had to constantly go over it, but it was well worth the work! We let it dry for a night, and that sums up day 22. I couldn’t get over how well the BLUE looked on the boat!

Day 23

When the boat was all dry the next day, we took all the tape off the back square and front triangle. We left the tape on the stripe and went over that a second time just to be safe and because it didn’t look as good as the square and triangle up close. While that was drying, I started to take all the tape off the metal stuff around the boat. Painting is finally over!

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Next up: clean and reattach hardware. Stay turned.

Today we had a visitor. His name was Charley Sabatier. He was a counselor at a camp I went to a year or so ago that teaches people to sail. The camp was called Blackjack Sailing Camp. It was a day camp that taught you the basics of sailing. This camp is what got me into sailing.

I have learned my lesson with trusting my dad to order the right stuff for my boat! So we called Mr. Sabatier and asked if he could come over and look at our mast and boom and to tell us what rigging/ropes we needed, how many, what size, where they go, etc. We also got some great guidance and advice from David Ferron on the National Sweet 16 Sailing Group Facebook page.

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He told us we needed six ropes, a painter’s line that is 3/8inch, three 1/4inch ropes for the halyard and jib, and two 3/8inch ropes for the mainsail and jib. The image below shows what we ordered. We bought more painter’s line then we needed, but we are going to use the extra for another project.

Mr. Sabatier is not only a great sailor who restored his own boat, but he is also a physics teacher at our local high school, OHS.

When Mr. Sabatier left, my dad and I began working. We started by cleaning and vacuuming the boat like always. Then, we painted the floor and floor walls.

Unlike the previous days, today we really started painting. No more primer. Another thing different that we did today is that we used a different type of paint for the floor and compartments, something called Interdeck non-slip. It is real paint, not primer, but it is rougher than regular paint so you won’t slip. We meant to order it in gray, but the white still looks nice (will probably later on in the year go over it with gray).

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One thing I forgot to mention is that before we painted and cleaned the boat, we did some light hand sanding so the paint would stick better. We also went over the boat with something called 333 Brushing Liquid on a cheesecloth before we painted as well.

After we cleaned and painted the compartments and floors, we moved onto the seats and outwalls using regular paint. Roll and Tipping.

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This is me hand sanding and painting the front compartment and floor.

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Dad and I are roll and tipping the outer walls and seats.

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The end result ended up looking great! One more coat, and it will look even better!

Today we did the exact same thing as yesterday, painted. We did our second and last coat of primer! But before you can paint anything you have to clean it first, so we did. We vacuumed and scrubbed the whole boat.

After that, we began painting starting with the 2 compartments, then to the floor and floor walls. Lastly, the seats and outer walls were painted (Just like day 18/yesterday).

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When we were done painting, it looked great!

Just when we finished and were putting the boat back in the garage, my dad told me that he had brought the mast and boom over from the farm this morning and he asked me if I wanted to clean them today! So we cleaned.

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They were crazy dirty, and the mast was crazy tall, 26 feet!

To clean them, we used my mom’s pressure washer and something called bike cleaner which my dad uses to clean his motorcycle.

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I said it once and I’ll say it again, pictures don’t do it justice!!

In day 17, I applied filler and sanded all throughout the night so that today I could finally put some paint on this bad boy! And I sure did! Well, my dad and I did. We started by cleaning the whole inside of the boat…scrubbing and drying, scrubbing and drying.

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After that, the fun began. We started with the 2 compartments in the front and back of the boat. Then went to the floor and the floor walls. And then finally to the seats and the outer walls.

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Doing long strokes with the roller and using the brush for more hard to get to places, the work was almost made easy.

The final result ended up looking amazing! And it was well worth the hours!

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Day 16, yesterday, I finished applying filler to the outer walls to the boat. Today, I did more of the same, only with a focus on the inside. I also sanded the entire topside which took forever!

The first thing I did was apply the filler to the inside of the boat.

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I finished with that, and it immediately started to rain, hard! I had to rush the boat back inside the garage (I had it outside because I was planning on sanding the boat). The rain would not stop. It just kept pouring and pouring until night fall. So, all I did was sit inside and mess with my blog. When the rain stopped, it was like 9:30ish. With me having done nothing for the last 10 hours, i was not tired one bit! So… I took the boat outside in the dark with a headlight and started sanding.

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I sanded for about 2 hours. By the end of the 2nd hour, my arm felt like it was going to fall off. When I finished sanding, my dad and I took the boat back inside and I decided to touch up on some places that needed more filler.

Since the boat was inside the garage, I had to hand sand the newly applied filler.

Overall, it was a good day. With it finally ready for paint, I was ready to go to bed.

I begin the day like any other day, TIRED! But I knew that I had to work on the boat. So I did. Today is “FILLER DAY-Yay!”(I told myself to get motivated). But in all seriousness, I was happy. Today was a big day. Yesterday, I cleaned the boat to be ready for today.

I started by moving the boat from outside to inside our garage (with dad’s help). It was much cooler in the garage, so the filler wouldn’t harden/dry as fast. It began pretty well, starting in the top and going down. In the photos you can tell that I skipped a few, that is because those have screw holes next to them.

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Later on, I decided to put small screws in the screw holes to keep them from filling in with filler, like you see in the photos below.

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After doing this for about 2-3 hours, I finished the outside walls. It wasn’t as boring as it looks in the photos. During this time, I had music playing from an Alexa that was given to us as a gift from mom at Christmas.

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On day 14, we finally finished the hull!

Today, we began a new chapter of restoring Knox’s sailboat! Some would call this chapter easier; some would call it harder. I call it both! In this chapter, we will began working on the topside, everything above sea level. That means seats, floors, compartments…An boy-oh-boy, I could not be more excited!!!

We start off by flipping the boat over, from its seahorses to its trailer. Lucky for us, all of the guys in our family (grandads, uncles…) came over for Father’s Day weekend, so they gave us a hand flipping it over.

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Next thing I did was pressure wash it. You can only imagine how dirty it was – from the boat being on the floor (driveway). It really needed it!

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After that, I did some dremel-ing.

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Followed by some hardcore scrubbing. Pretty good first day.

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I also changed the tire to the trailer.

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The Last Day working on the hull is today! Day 1: the FINAL PHASE!

Day 14 is basically the same as day 13; but, when we finish today, the hull will be done! We did the same strategy as last time: dad rolled, I tipped, and mom went over places we missed or couldn’t get to. We decided that since it worked so well last time, that there was no need to change the strategy. Why change something if it isn’t broken, right? (I know that is not the actual saying)!

We cleaned it a bit. Then, we began painting. Up and down, left to right.

When we were finished, it looked awesome! Its crazy how much progress we have made! I couldn’t think it could get any shinier, to be honest!

It’s so shiny that if you walk up to it, you can see your reflection!

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It’s insane how far we have come on the hull from it being all dirty and nasty, to the filler and now to nice clean paint!

The FINAL PHASE begins! The FINAL STEP to the hull restoration begins TODAY!!

In days 11 & 12, I applied both coats of primer to the boat. And today, I will apply both coats of actual PAINT! The paint we used was white. Boring I know, but don’t fret! I promise the end result will be great.

We started off (my dad and me) by watching a couple of YouTube videos on how to paint a boat, the best way etc. We figured out the best way to do it was something called ROLL & TIP, a “strategy” of how to paint saying you should take your paint roller, paint a small section with that doing it up and down. Then, when you are finished with that small section, take a paint brush and go horizontal over what you just did but only using the tip. Do not go back and forward – only go one way, one line. You can probably find a better definition of this if you search ROLL & TIP painting method.

Before we could do any roll & tipping, we, of course, had to sand, clean it, etc. While we were cleaning it, my dad and I soon realized that the bugs are/were attracted to white paint, and with the boat being left outside, the bugs were all over it! So, the cleaning was extremely necessary. We did a very brief sanding and began.

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One thing I forgot to mention was that the Roll & Tip method is a 3-person job. One person paints with a roller, one person tips, and one person holds the paint and keeps the thing running. You don’t have to have three people, you could definitely do it by yourself, but it’s just way easier with multiple people. My dad ended up rolling, my mom ending up supplying the paint and going over spots my dad and I missed with another paintbrush, and I tipped.

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All was going good and continued to. We finished the first coat of paint and it was shinier than ever.

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