Evanston: white
Evanston: white
I rode the 7 a.m. train north the past two days and got a coat of anti-fouling on GANNET each day. The Petit Vivid really is white, whereas International’s Micron Shark White is gray, although it does become whiter as the surface wears away during an ocean passage.
Monday was cold.
The Petit can says the paint should be applied between 50º and 90ºF. I probably fudged the 50º a bit, but it needed to get done.
Yesterday was warmer, until the breeze filled in from off the lake around noon.
I suppose the main reason I hadn’t asked Skipper Bud’s to prop the boat was that I sensed that they wouldn’t, and I was right.
When I arrived Monday morning I found that GANNET had been moved, but not propped. This was her second move. The first came on a day I was sanding VC17 and I did not welcome the interruption, though in fact it did not take long. She was moved a few spaces down and back against the fence so a boat behind her could be launched. I don’t know why she needed to be moved a second time.
After masking the waterline and wiping down the bottom with mineral spirits, I poured the amount of paint I normally do into a roller tray and started to work with a foam roller and a cheap brush for those places the roller couldn’t reach. To my surprise that one tray covered the entire port side of the bottom and part of the starboard. My rough estimate that THE HAWKE OF TUONELA’s bottom surface area is four times GANNET’s was confirmed by my using about a quart of anti-fouling per coat on GANNET while a coat on HAWKE requires a gallon.
The Vivid surface is observably not as hard and smooth as was the VC17. Once dry it can be sanded and burnished, but I doubt it ever would be quite as fast as VC17. Being an ablative paint it will wear down and become smoother as the boat is sailed.
I started working on the bottom on March 28 and finished on April 24. I think the job could have been finished on four work days spread over a single week if there were no other interruptions.
Removing the VC17 was a three day job. Even that first misguided day wasn’t wasted. I got a lot of paint off, and my arms and shoulders couldn’t have held paper towels and sander in awkward positions for more hours a day than they did. And probably not for three days in a row.
With an overcoat time of four hours and a single coat taking little more than a hour to apply, I could have easily put on two coats in one day had I more favorable train schedules.
You may have noticed how clean the parking lot is beneath GANNET. That is not because I am a neat painter. I’m not. But I know I’m not and put down a plastic drop cloth.
When I finished painting, I inspected the red rub rail closely and sanded a section. It seems not to be painted, but to be a piece of solid red plastic.
Some Moore 24 owners have removed the rub rail. GANNET’s appears to be attached by dozens of screws from inside the hull. Far more holes than I want to try to fill and seal. Ultimately I may paint the rail the same color as the topsides, but I have white paint left over from the interior, so this summer the rail will be white.
GANNET is due to be launched a week from Saturday. She is ready to go back in the water now. I may see if Skipper Bud’s can launch her earlier.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012