Sea Wind Mast Work

Sea Wind 24 Port Hull Bottom Paint, Aug. 2012

The bottom paint on the port hull (all four old coats) was coming off in large areas so the hull was stripped and repainted. The job was done on the dock so a biodegradable paint stripper was used followed by sanding with 80 grit paper using an orbital palm sander connected to a vacuum cleaner. This was done in the southwestern Florida in August 2012 when daytime temperatures were 90-92° F cooling to low 80s at night.

The Soy Strip used for removing the old paint is advertised to be used below 90°F and I now believe that! It should have easily taken off the four coats of old paint but, even after 12 hour soak periods, it would not loosen the bottom coat enough to scrape it off. Even though it was covered immediately with plastic wrap and protected from the direct sun it dried too fast to soften the bottom coat. I worked so that the soak periods were during the overnight periods to take advantage of the cooler temperatures and I tried to shade the hull during the day. The top three coats came off easily after an 8-10 hr soak using a utility razor blade in a plastic window scraper and the same with the bottom coat after the second application. I also used a carbide scraper to get off hard stuff when my patience wore thin.

Sanding went very quickly. I did find three areas of the hull where the gel coat was damaged exposing the fiberglass. These areas were repaired by removing all loose gel coat and filling with PC-11.

Three coats of Pettit Trinidad SR antifouling bottom paint were applied using the required four hour dry period between coats and the 16 hr period after the last coat before launching. Actually the paint would be dry in 15 min. in this hot weather. I used navy blue for all three coats being very careful to get complete coverage on each coat. I found that painting after dark (cooler) using a portable light allowed me to see imperfections better than during a bright sunny day. I've used this paint before here in Florida and it lasts some three years for me. The channel water gets into the mid 90s in the summer.


Air bags under the bow and stern of the starboard hull. The hull was lifted about 8" with about 10 psi air pressure in the bags.	The port hull with the stern lifted onto the dock with the davits. The davits are too close together to allow the entire hull to be placed on the dock so the boat was relocated between bow and stern work.

This is how the bow area was worked. The inner surface could be reached to about 8 ft. from the stern. Note that there is trailer eye on the bow of each hull.	View after removing the four coats of old paint with Soy Strip and sanding with 80 grit paper. Note the safety blocks under the hull but not touching

.After the first new coat on the bow area. You can see the stern area that was left until the boat was repositioned on the dock to give access to the stern.	This shows how the hull was shaded from the afternoon sun to keep the hull as cool as possible. Even with this the Soy Strip dried too quickly to take off all four coats of old paint in one application. Note the LED nav light and the u-bolts for fender connections.

After painting three coats. Note that the hull is suspended from above so nothing is touching the newly painted area. The lifting eye is out of sight on the other side of the rudder. The eye in view is for towing another boat Coast Guard Auxiliary style.	Job complete and ready to swing back into the water. The bow is lifted with a strap around the end of the forward beam and the stern from a lifting eye on the upper transom just outboard of the gudgeon.