The Final Touches at the Boatyard

Even a few night times were spent grinding and sanding delaminated fiberglass...

Each of the three transoms (back part of the hulls) took a whole day to apply new fiberglass... and the big panel on the side.

Then applying filler to smooth it out took another few days... not a trivial amount of work.

After arduous sanding sessions (where every square foot of the boat sides and bottom were lightly sanded) we were finally we were ready to paint it.  We were really realizing -- this is a big boat.

Thanks to our friends from ePaint for providing environmentally friendly bottom paint (the blue paint).  Looks great! Bottom paint usually has a biocide like lead (not legal in California, still in use around the world) and copper.  The biocide kills marine algae that likes to attach on the bottom of the boat, slowing you down and possibly compromising the hull, by leaching out into the water. This accumulates a great amount of metals in the water over time, particularly in an enclosed body of water such as a harbor. ePaint uses a zinc oxide and that behaves like hydrogen peroxide and is biodegradable and driven by the sun.  Very cool.


It was with great happiness that the boat was placed back in the water. The next day we sailed back to Santa Barbara.