Out on the hard (NZ 2009)

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Wow – I can’t believe it’s been two months since my last blog. Sorry for being so slack but we have been busy!

We were disappointed to see so many small blisters, like a rash on the hull

We hauled Distant Drummer out of the water in early June. We knew she needed a new anode on the propeller and another coat of antifoul but the major unknown was the state of the blisters on her bottom! Our fear was that they were osmosis blisters where seawater wicks along fibreglass strands into the hull. It weakens the hull structure in two ways; first by dissolving the resin in the fibreglass and secondly by collecting as blisters which lift and separate the fibreglass layers. It’s a nasty business in any case so it was with some trepidation that we lifted the boat.

After sanding we had to chase out many of the blisters, smooth them down and fill them with epoxy

Sure enough we found lots of small blisters about the size of a thumbnail, like chickenpox across the hull. The good thing about boatyards is that they are full of experts. Word spread fast and before we knew it we had as many opinions as we had blisters! On the positive side we found that the blisters were between the gel coat (the first coat of paint) and the overlying layer of epoxy, they were not within the fibreglass i.e. they were not weakening the structure of the hull. We breathed a sigh of relief!!

We spent many long days wet sanding the hull. By the end we looked like a blue incredible hulk

Ideally we should strip the hull back to the gel coat, leave it to dry for a few weeks then apply a couple of layers of epoxy. However the short days and cold weather in the middle of winter at 40 degrees South is not the best time to do it, so we decided to leave it until the next time we haul in summer 2009.

The first two coats of antifoul were black, the last two were blue. It helps to see when it’s getting thin

As it happens when we were sanding the hull down to repaint we removed the top off about 50% of the blisters in any case. So we chased those out and filled them with epoxy. We waxed her topsides, polished her steel and slapped on four coats of antifoul and Bob’s your Uncle . . . back in the water and out of sight!

Maya and Yahal added the final touches to the hull!

Winter here has really set in. While we were out of the water we had a couple of cold snaps where morning temperatures were around freezing and a few rainy days which held up progress. Work on the boat was hard and dirty especially the sanding; bending at all sorts of weird angles with freezing water soaking your clothes and sanding until your arms were about to drop off!! But boatyards are very sociable places and we met a lot of new people which was fun. The job took longer than we had planned but it’s a job well done and we learnt a lot.

Finally in mid July Distant Drummer goes back in the water!

When the weather was too wet to work or we just felt lazy we did find time to have some fun as well. We went up to Golden Bay for a couple of days . . . but more on that next time.

Tata for now.

Suzy and Neil