Paint your wagon... and come along!

That makes Emily Clint Eastwood and me... Jean Seberg. Well, one of us could be Lee Marvin I guess.
Instead of trying re-gelcoat our cabin top we decided to go the painting route. We're using Interlux Pre-kote and Brightsides (white). Brightsides is one part polyurathane paint, and is nice and durable. Since the condition of the fiberglass was pretty rough I filled in the deep scratches and chips with epoxy/filler to smooth them out. Then we sanded, taped and tacked.

We've put on the first primer coat and the difference was like night and day. Well, it looks like day and first-coat-of-primer day. We'll put a second coat on and then 2 top coats.

Water filter

We haven't had a need for hot water from our galley sink and adding hot water to it would add more complication to our fresh water system not to mention keeping water hot on demand. We would have to run the water heater all the time just to have hot water once in a while.

So, we decided to use the hot water tap of the galley sink and plumb in a water filter. The water was slightly metallic tasting, but not more than you would get from drinking out of a stainless steel thermos. We went with the Shurflo WaterGuard system. It uses replaceable filter cartridges which is nice. I installed a tee after the water pump- one side feeding the galley sink for washing dishes etc, and the other side feeding the water filter.
I mounted it in the 'Bad Space', a not so easy to access space outboard of the sink, and aft of the stove. Getting things in and out is even harder than with the old icebox. Why the architect designed the storage like he did is beyond me. In many boats of this size/class the space is used as a quarter berth.

Cabin top cleaning

We had not paid much attention to the fiberglass gelcoat on the cabin top since we purchased Mola Mola and it was in bad shape then. Fiberglass boats are coated often coated with an epoxy or polyester resin that provides a glossy finish to the fiberglass that protects it from UV and light physical damage. It is not impervious to wear and after a few seasons begins to oxidize, turning dull and chalky. Our boat was at the very dull and very chalky stage and I thought it would be a good idea to clean it. I purchased 3M Restorer & Wax that cleans up heavy oxidation and has a built in wax component. It worked like a charm and the cabin top is much much nicer looking, almost shiny in parts. Before too long though, we'll have to sand off all the gelcoat and repaint it as there are several deep gouges and chips in it. We could re-gelcoat it which is expensive and tricky to do I'm told, but Petit and Interlux make very good polyurathane topcoats that will more than fit the bill.

The first picture is a sample of what the cabin top looked like. The oxidized gelcoat traps dirt and oils and regular soaps and detergents don't even touch them which is why I went to a specialty product. The second is chalky gelcoat which washed off and was suprisingly hard to get off my hands. The last two are pictures of the cabin top after cleaning.

1 out of 1 Chaz agrees: Human hair is the best paint brush!

We finished cleaning out the icebox cavern and got it coated in primer. This helps us to visualize how we would like to construct the new cabinets. We use Gripper primer as it is very durable and resilient. It fills in small scratches and gaps very nicely and dries wicket fast. We primed everything in April with it and it still looks great even in the head and bilge where it gets very wet.
In painting the ice box space I had to lean way in to reach the inner hull. No paint job is complete without getting some in your hair, and so I did. The space looks nice and clean and we've pretty much figured out what we want to do for cabinets. Woohoo!

Recaulking the main hatch

I finally got around to caulking the hatch which we stripped and oiled over a month ago. I cleaned out the seams with acetone and then taped them.

We're using Boatlife LifeCaulk, a sticky, sticky, polysulfide compound that is formulated for oily woods, like teak. Its scarily icky and I went through many gloves during the process. Once the caulk skinned over, I pulled the tape. Taking the tape off was messy as I didn't leave any tape handles to get it off of the individual planks, so I used a utility knife and carefully picked up tape corners, trying not to smear the caulk.

I think it came out swimmingly, in a couple days we'll be able to start varnishing the hatch.

Woohoo! Varnish!

Dear Diary,
Today I put on the first new varnish this boat has seen in at least 10 years. We're using Epifanes High Gloss Clear Finish. The first coat is cut with Penetrol and it did indeed brush on quite smoothly. We're using Epifanes since it came highly recommended, is compatible with teak (and other oily woods). It also claims to be recoatable within 72 hours without sanding. I am not sure if that is enough of a selling point in and of itself, as I have found a light sanding is almost always needed due to dust when varnishing outside. We'll see.

Here are pictures of the laz hatch (lazerette), and the weatherboards for the main hatch.

"A lazarette is usually a storage locker used for gear or equipment a sailor or bosun would use around the decks on a sailing vessel. It is typically found below the weather deck in the stern of the vessel and is accessed through a hatch if accessed from the main deck or a doorway if accessed from below decks. The equipment usually stored in a lazarette would be spare lines, sails, sail repair, line and cable splicing repair equipment, fenders, bosun chair, spare blocks, tools etc." -wikipedia 2010

Next up are the handrails and followed by the toe rails- at least as far as first coats go.