Time for Haul Out

Now that Jensens Shipyard allows you to work on your own boat, I was able to haul out in Friday Harbor for my every two year time. I was lucky this weekend in October turned out to be sunny and nice, which is a real hazard of planning haul outs in the PNW outside of July and August. Yet in July and August you'd like to be using your boat! 

For this trip I did bottom paint, prop clean and treat, and the hull stripe. 

For bottom paint I learned that the PCA Gold Ablative I've been using for many years does not ablate that much in two years. Last haul out I got clever and painted one coat of red, and then topped it with a blue, so I could learn at the next haul out whether one or two coats was necessary. Turned out, all I could still see was blue paint in all areas except for around the prop and rudder in a few small spots. So this time, I only coated with one coat of paint to not accumulate unnecessary layers. I've found PCA Gold from West Marine, which is a rebranded Petit Paint, to never have hard growth and to do quite well. 

For the prop I was similarly impressed with my last treatment with Petit Zinc Prop Coat Spray. It lasted two years and had only a couple barnacles. For this time, I learned that they recommend top coating the zinc spray with HydroCoat Eco, a non-copper based antifouling paint. So I did that. The only color of HydroCoat Eco that comes in quart sizes was black, so I now have a black propeller. Odd, but I suppose I will spot barnacles more easily. It should work even better than just the Zinc Spray, and time will tell. 

Use aluminum anodes now since they last much better       

The biggest job was the hull stripe. It had been a good many years since I last painted it and it had grown dull and worn out. To do this, it takes many steps. Per Don Casey recommendations, I use two-part polyurethane for a more durable finish. You first have to wipe the whole thing well with a solvent, in my case with Interlux 202N. Then, you sand the whole area with 220. Then you wipe the whole thing again to remove the sanding residue. Then, you can tape! Well those steps alone took about 4 hours. 

It was getting late in the day and so I had to postpone painting until Sunday. Fortunately Aeolus only needed one coat of the paint, as I was painting blue on blue. There is an enormous amount of skill to using two part polyurethane, beyond knowing the roll and tip method. The right amount of thinner is key. I'm happy with the results on Aeolus and yet recognize it is only 90% of perfect. There are things I could have done to have it be nicer, but the time/benefit ratio was not good. We don't race or show Aeolus, and I've always cared way more about her mechanical integrity than her appearance. 

Good enough! 

A great weekend in the islands and lovely to be working at Jensen's again. The Port crew had a heck of a time hauling Aeolus out of the water, but they were careful and finally figured out what old timers know about hauling a full keel boat like Aeolus.