Category Archives: Sailboats

My Bottom is Black and Shiny

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Moonrise is back in the water after having her bottom painted. What a difference a fresh coat of bottom paint makes! But let’s start from the beginning.

For our readers that are not hip to the intricacies of boat ownership, boats left in the water year round must have special paint applied to the bottom of their hulls to inhibit growth of the many critters that want to live there. In the Puget Sound, barnacles are the main culprit. The paint we use contains copper which leeches out over time. We last painted Moonrise in October of 2009 and so, thirty months later, we have pulled her out for a fresh coat of paint and to repair a scrape to the keel.

We are hoping that a freshly painted bottom will help Moonrise sell since it is a considerable expense and a lot of work. We also really enjoy sailing her with a clean bottom. So, before we sell her, we benefit from our labors.

The first step is to get Moonrise out of the water.  In Tacoma, we use the Hylebos Boatyard. Even though it is a lot of work, we both enjoy the yard. You get to oogle other boats in various states of undress and the yard boss, Shaun, is friendly and helpful.

Want to see her being pulled from the water?

After being hauled out, Moonrise gets a pressure wash to remove the soft algae and other easy to remove critters. It also tends to take off some of the old paint.

Moonrise after having her bottom pressure washed

Melissa and I were quite happy with the state of the bottom. There was very little hard growth and it looked like a very easy job to to lightly sand and repair a gouge on the keel. We bumped into a rock in Barkley Sound a year and half ago which took a divot out of the keel in two places.

Moonrise ready for a light sanding and paint

After getting the boat secured with jack stands we sanded the bottom to remove any remaining hard growth and to rough up the bottom for the fresh paint. We have to rent a sander which is attached to a industrial sized shop vacuum to keep the bottom paint dust from contaminating the air and water. The boat yard is pretty meticulous about keeping the area clean since the EPA can fine them (and us) for polluting the waterway.

View of damage to bottom of keel after pressure washing

This damage was a source of some embarrassment for us. Fortunately, it was easy to fix. After sanding the damage out, I applied a coat of epoxy to the area and then filled the gouge with thickened epoxy. The next day, I sanded everything fair.

Epoxy with filler applied to keel. Just need to sand everything fair now.

Repaired keel before painting

And this is what the area looked like after painting

The finished product. Epoxy is a wonderful thing

With two of us working to paint, it only takes a couple of hours per coat. It isn’t terribly hard work but you do have paint upside down and in other awkward positions.

God, I love that woman

For the second time since we have owned Moonrise, we used the Interlux Bottom Coat ACT with Irgarol. This paint is relatively inexpensive as bottom paints go ($140 a gallon at West Marine) and had done a great job for the last 30 months.

Et Voila! Fresh bottom paint and a waxed hull to boot.

Happiness is a clean, freshly painted bottom

Just before re-launching the boat, we have to paint the area where the keel rests on the ground. Shaun, the yard boss lifts the boat up a few inches to remove the jack stands and prepare the boat for the journey back to the water. While he works, I slip in to slap a last few bits of paint on the bottom of the keel. It is a little weird being under the boat just suspended by two nylon straps, large though they may be.

Here is Moonrise being lowered back into the water.

It had been a rainy day and Melissa and I were not looking forward to sailing her back to our moorage across the bay in a downpour. The gods smiled upon us and the rain stopped just as we left the yard. The effects of having a clean, fresh bottom on the performance of a sailboat are amazing. We had perhaps ten knots of wind gusting to 13 as we flew across the bay with just the headsail at nearly six knots. It was a beautiful reward for all our labors.

 

 

This Just In! New Updates as the Story Unfolds…

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This is just unnatural!

Moonrise is on the hard! Sure, we’re selling this boat, but since we haven’t found that one special buyer yet, we’re going to be sailing her until we do. I still want that trip down the west coast this summer. Summer is coming! Adventure awaits! Therefore, she needs her bottom cleaned and painted, and needs a small repair to the fiberglass where I had a close encounter with an uncharted rock up in Barkely Sound. It was a small thing, but we wanted to take care of it.

Here she is, being lifted out of the water. Watch Mike. He is positioning himself for the best possible view of her hull as she is lifted. He cannot wait!

So stay tuned! This story is unfolding even now and we’ll post full lurid details, complete with photos of her bare hull!  Meanwhile, would you let this man take you home?

Please don't hate him because he's beautiful.

Take me home. Now.

Archetypes of the Pacific Northwest, with Magic!

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We pulled the dingy onto the muddy shore at Penrose State Park, looking forward to a hike to the other side of the little peninsula. We hoped we’d see other boats from the Puget Sound Cruising Club anchored there as we were supposed to be there for a raft-up. I’d spent the better part of the previous evening sick as a dog and, feeling more myself, it felt good to get off the boat and stretch my legs. The park was filled with Memorial Day revelers  and several dinghies were tied up on rocks on the other side of the cove. Together we pulled the dingy up onto the mud and looked for a place to tie up.

Me: ” Honey, there isn’t any place to tie off Puddler in this part of the cove. Maybe we should move it closer to those rocks with the other dingies. The tide is coming in.”

Mike: “Naw, let’s just pull it up further onto the beach. We won’t be gone that long.”

Me: ” Are you sure? That seems a little risky to me.”

Mike: “Here’s a rock. I’ll tie it off here. See? Okay, let’s go.”

Always trusting my husband to know what is best, I trudge off with him, ever the ‘dutiful’ wife. Hahahahahaha!

Love is frequently blind.

We spent the next hour hiking the woodsy trail, enjoying the sunshine and remembering why we still live in the Pacific Northwest, in spite of the hateful winters. If only it were like this all the time! We began to think of all the folks we know who live in other parts of the country, never having known the joys of Pacific Northwest Cruising in Good Weather. With newlyweds Tate and Dani of Sundowner Sails Again in mind, we assembled this collection of Northwest archetypes to give them an idea of what they are missing by living down south. Some folks would call these photos ‘ubiquitous’, but I prefer the more academic, intellectually stimulating term ‘archetype’ as it more accurately reflects the esoteric symbolic nature of these images and also allows me to use big words. If you are more on the side of ‘ubiquitous’, you can skip the next part and cut to the video at the end.

Archetype of Haughty Eagle in Craggy Tree; archetype of limitless freedom, our national bird, and my personal totem animal.

 

Archetype of Weathered Driftwood Archway on sand and shell beach; symbolic of hidden mysteries, doorway to homes of native gnomes, elves, and fairies, symbolic of entries into other realms.

Archetype of the Meandering Forest Path; symbolic of the uncertainty of the future, also of worlds between worlds and the interconnected-ness of all things.

Archetype of the Partly Submerged Rock; symbolic of danger lurking beneath the surface and also watching the hell where you are going.

 

Feeling the pressure of time, and the ever increasing wind, we headed back to the other side of the park. As we emerged from the forest we could see the beach where we left Puddler.

Mike: There’s Puddler. Looks like we got back just in time, the tide really came in fast!

Me: It looks like Puddler is…… floating?

Mike: Maybe just a little. We’ll make it in time.

Me: Are you sure? He looks like he’s really floating pretty good. Actually, there appears to be a lot of water between Puddler and the beach.

Mike: He’s headed out to sea!

Me: Hurry! He’s getting further out from the beach. I think you will have to swim for it. (Naturally I assumed it would be Mike doing the swimming, since he built the dingy.)

Mike: Wait, he’s slowing down,  I think he’s moving in our direction!

Me: Call him! Whistle for him! Use your magic to bring him to you! You can do it, I believe in you! Reach your hand out to him and call him by name! (I clap my hands loudly, believing in Mike with all my heart.)

Does Mike have magic powers over his boat? Watch the video and you be the judge, along with our audience at the site, the South Sound Sailing Society. (Maybe we should join their group since we found them easily, plus they had a tasty looking potluck on the beach.)