June 7, 2016
Rhodes 2
Tuesday
Armed with a 5″ sander and 40 grit discs, I started at the starboard bow and worked to remove the old coatings from the hull. I found a number of layers as I sanded, and fine-tuned the sanding process over time as I found the approach that worked the most efficiently. The old coatings–mainly the heavy off-white top coat and a tan layer beneath the pale green–tended to gunk up the sanding discs quickly, slowing the process, but no worse than anything I was used to.
Over the course of a few hours, I removed all the old paint from the starboard side of the hull, from gunwale to just below the scribed waterline (the old blue stripe was painted just below the scribe, explaining why it looked too low). Once I’d removed the bulk of the paint with the coarser discs, I switched to 80 grit for a final (for now) cleaning pass to smooth the surface and remove any final bits of old paint. Things were looking vastly improved already.
The old gelcoat was in fair condition, with plenty of crazing and cracking, but essentially sound for all that. There’d be plenty of work ahead to prepare it for new coatings, however.
Weary of working on the hull, but with time still available, I turned to the starboard deck, and removed the old paint and nonskid from the foredeck aft. I couldn’t reach the foredeck well enough for the required leverage from my position on the ground, so I’d finish that up another time. The gray deck gelcoat beneath the old coatings was in poor-ish condition, with heavy crazing and cracking and that dry, almost crumbly texture common to boats from this era.
Total time billed on this job today: 4 hours
0600 Weather Observation:
45°, sunny. Forecast for the day: becoming more cloudy, possible shower, then possible thunderstorms in the afternoon.