| Bolero
Project |
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 I began the day by removing and disposing of all the plastic, tape, and paper from the hull and deck and adjacent areas. This took a couple hours. It was nice to expose the wood and get a preview of how the finished boat would look. I know the white area beneath the hull paint looks sort of like a boottop, folks, but it's not: it's just the strip of primer left over and resulting from the 2" raised waterline that I struck last week. It's not "straight" relative to the old bottom paint, but it's level and planar according to how the boat should float; hence, it reduces in width towards the bow and stern because of the sheered profile of the old line (see last week's logs to review this as needed). It's irrelevant to anything, but it's there until I strike the new boot stripes and paint the bottom this week. Just please don't think this is an attempt at striping, because it isn't. |
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Afterwards, I got started on taping off the newly-painted white deck areas so that I could paint the nonskid field later on. I determined a width for the taffrail, and marked and taped off the stern section; then, I sanded the excess white paint in the areas where nonskid would go to remove the gloss and feather in the sharp line where the tape had been during application. |
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The anchor well hatch, which would receive nonskid paint like the surrounding areas, needed a minor modification before I could apply the paint: a small notch to allow the anchor rode to pass out when the hatch is closed. This was simple enough: I made some measurements to allow the opening to clear the after support cleat in the anchor well, and drilled and sawed out the opening, then cleaned it up with sandpaper as needed. |
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I faired the tape lines by eye as needed, and then taped off the coachroof and the cockpit sole for nonskid as well. I solvent-washed the deck areas and prepared to apply the first coat of nonskid paint, a custom blend of beige and white. I applied the paint with a roller, and left the boat to cure. |
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Painting is important, but it slows down progress on the boat since little or nothing else can be done on the boat itself during the process. So I took care of some necessary tasks elsewhere, specifically on the mast. I made two wooden fairing blocks for the winches, and then mounted the pair of Lewmar #6 halyard winches on the mast, roughly 48" above deck level where we'd previously determined they should be. Since the old halyards exited the mast near the base, from the old one-design days when these lines led below deck, I installed new halyard exits on the spar above the winches to allow the halyards to exit where they now needed: main halyard on the starboard side, jib and spinnaker halyards to port. I re-led the messenger lines for each halyard through their respective plates, and tied them off thoroughly. |
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Finally, I began cutting teak plugs for the toerail--busywork that, while necessary, I hated to use actual "productive" time to perform, making this the perfect opportunity. I made about half the number required for the job before the belt on my drill press broke, effectively shutting down that operation. I ordered a new belt and called it a day. |
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