Work Day 18

Did quite a bit of work during the week lining up the floor and dropping in the bilge box securely.  However, it was slow going because although I had free time, the temps were well over 100 for most of the day. Not the ideal time to be sweating and in the sun.  But when the sun set rest assured I was out working.  securely placed the bilge to the forward bulkhead and hull floor as well as waterproofed it.  Dumped a soda bottle full of water in to wait and sea it leaked at all.  Though there was some slight seepage up front I quickly sealed the leak and now have a functioning bilge.  I took the time not to seal the floor because what good is a floor if there is a leaky bilge!  

Instead of sealing the floor in because I was waiting on the bilge to dry I took a crack at the starboard side stripping job.  I was pretty confident that a second try with all the experience from the first side would make the job go quicker.  Though this is true still did not accomplish all of it this weekend.  I attacked it three separate times.  First, I painted the boat with stripper including some special aqua strip I order from a boat supplier.  Then sealed up the stripper and paint with a plastic layer and tape. This was to keep the moisture in and prevent it from drying out.  Then I simply waited 12 hours for it to really work.  This was a pretty effective method for stripping first layer of green paint off.  It came off easily the next day for the entire right side bow to stern.  The only areas that were tough were areas exposed to air. You could tell because it was white and dried out as opposed to darker and moist.  Now after I had all the green paint off I set in to doing the tedious stripping of the biocide.  Had the time to apply three more layers of stripping gel and scrape. Would say it is down to about 25% or less on all surfaces.   Will probably take another 3-5 hours to clean it up stem to stern.  Forgot to mention I also did not strip the above waterline paint because it would be messy, easy and unnecessary.  I will leave it up until the very end.  After I clean up the bottom I will strip the top, should take an hour tops.

After I clean it up the plan is wash down the boat.  Then to take a day in a full protective suit and mask and sand with 80 grit paper the entire boat.  Especially getting rid of low areas or areas where I nicked the boat with the scraper. It is a very sharp took use for removing carpet goo or vinyl tile glue.  So great at what it does but occasionally the blade will chip and indent into the boat.  The other thing will need to do is then cover the boat with solvent wash before painting it. This will be right before I paint though.  Painting will hopefully occur next weekend.  One of two strategies for that.  Have a bunch of guys come over and move the boat forward 3 inches to get at areas previously not paintable.  Or, take it to local powerboat shop and use their 2 ton crane.  They offered it if the boat would fit in the workshop.  Just need to follow up with them during the week.  The trick will be fast application.  The instructions say that the barrier coat needs to dry 24-36 hours and then be sanded with 220 grit paper in order to prep for VC17(as it is very thin).  The issue is that means I would need to use the crane twice.  Then would come back at it with the vc 17. I might end up painting all the boat and then sanding and using the crane just for the part that was covered applying new paint on the spot.

The goal will be to seal up the deck here sometime during the week in between thunderstorms. Then I can start talking with local cabinet shop about planing my wood to veneers so I can apply it to the cabin. Also learned an interesting thing this weekend, I might have wood long enough to replace the entire side cabin walls. Which would be pretty appealing if I could.  

Well that should keep me pretty busy for now. Working on a rough target date for water trials over fourth of july weekend but that would be pretty ambitious with all the cabin work and painting to be done.