We were lifted out of the water on July 10th and put on the hard to be sanded and painted. And of course there has been rain, and crazy heat. It’s been in the 90s with humidity into the 70-80% range most days.

I love my cardiologist but I don’t want to hang out with her outside of scheduled appointments where she tells me I’m doing amazing and she wished all her patients did so well. Working in that heat was not going to happen.

So it was up at 5am to sand until 8am and then out at 6:30pm to sand until 9pm. And that went on for a full WEEK. It costs about $50 a foot to have the boat soda blasted and I’m now convinced it’s 1,000% worth it. I’ll never sand again.

Following the sanding it was time to wash and then to apply the bottom paint. After a week of exhaustion I read the instructions and didn’t notice that the base coat was called “seaPoxy” which to any normal seaman would strongly convey the fact that it’s an epoxy and needs to be mixed. NO I applied the epoxy without the hardening agent all over the port rear quarter before I noticed what I was doing.

Problem solved I was able to get the rest of the boat coated and then went to bed. The next morning we scraped off the mess I’d made and then did an acid wash to make sure as much of it was off. Then I applied the proper mix. I did learn thought that the mix does not like waiting to be applied so it was VERY thick and anyone ever using this stuff will need to be sure to hold back some unmixed ingredients for the jack stands.

The next day we mixed only what we needed to apply our red layer of the epoxy and did that at 5am then did the layer of silicone at noon.

Overall, other than the sanding, the process was simple enough and I look forward to having our stands moved so I can do under them in another day then we can see how this works over the next few years. I’m hopeful. If our first sail is any indication we’re in for some good news. We moved almost two knots faster than normal. I really can’t wait to see how this stuff lasts.