| Aphelion Refit
| July 5, 2007 Today, I finished up the sanding work on the port side, and hand-sanded the top edge of the hull to remove the remaining paint. As on the other side, the sanding revealed a few spots that required filling; later in the day, I applied a coat of Alexseal fairing compound to both sides as required, leaving it to cure overnight. |
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I also removed the remaining paint from around a few protrusions in the hull: a couple vent fittings, and the exhaust and bilge pump outlets in the counter. Then, I blew out much of the dust that had settled, over the past weeks, on the top of the protective plastic over the deck, in preparation for removing this plastic and installing new for the paint spraying ahead. I left the plastic in place for now, however. |
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Next, I spent some time studying the ghostly line in the hull's gelcoat where I expected to tape off the topsides and demark the bottom paint. I critically eyed the line from all angles, near and far, and compared its plane to that suggested by the tape marks on the hull where I had marked the actual floating waterline. With another Seabreeze on site, I also compared the two to double-check my thoughts and help confirm the eventual paint line. Eventually, I determined that this line would indeed be an appropriate place to mark the antifouling/hull paint line, and that it corresponded closely with where the old paint had been, at least at the transom; the other areas of the old paint line, particularly at the bow, had been clearly off kilter. With this decision made, I scraped and sanded away the small remaining patches of bottom paint, though I marked the hull with a Sharpie at each location so as to have a continuing record of the actual floating waterline. I made a few changes to the staging so that I could better reach all areas of the hull; with the high sheerline in the bow, as compared to the other areas of the hull, I found that a single level of staging would not work properly for spraying, so I added another cleat to the forward staging supports to allow the forwardmost planks to be placed a foot above the after sections for better access. |
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