PNW Live Aboards

No matter how much preparation and planning, a scheduled 30 day haul out for a 12 day paint job never goes as expected.

The bottom paint gave us surprisingly good service for eight years however this last summer the bottom of the boat was becoming home to various species of crustaceans and seaweeds. It was time for a complete bottom paint. We did our due diligence and got estimates from four contractors from Everett to Anacortes and settled on our old home port of Everett for a March 1st haul out. Now for the weather and sub-contractors to align. We waved our magic weather wand and landed on time on haul out day. All good!

Until the power wash and light sanding get started. Then the surprises kept popping out…literally. Osmosis blistering-thousands of them. Basic bottom paint job no more, we were in for the full monty of bottom needs at four times the original estimate! Ohh but no problem, they are sure they can finish in our 30 day scheduled haul out time. Days and hours of grinding with open-mesh 20 grit showed there were still about 400 deep blisters that were into the second and third layer of glass. Grind until there is no more water in the blister, fill with two-part epoxy, feather, sand—repeat! The folks who do this work (inside a giant closed off tent no less) do not get enough credit! Every 30 minutes or so they would emerge from the tenting, remove their respirator and take in some fresh air all the while cleaning the black soot from their face mask. in the meantime, we’re watching the calendar and getting worried that we see no paint, no primer and it’s the beginning of week four.

Worried about time we decided to take over some other projects ourselves and subcontract another. We subbed out the stabilizer fin reseal and we decided to take on replacing the drive and rudder shaft packings along with the replacement of the sacrificial anodes and the anchor replacement. Let’s talk about the rudder and drive packing rings shall we…..does it really take seven packing rings to keep water out of the bilge? Such a fun job this was. We learned a few new words and a few new boat yoga poses as well getting this job done.

That brings us to the beginning of week five. Fewer and fewer blisters are exposed but yet still no primer/paint. Then we get the call…”Hello, this is Mr_____ from the boat yard, I’m going to need ten more days to complete your boat.” Well, not the news we wanted to hear as those ten extra days literally cost more than the previous month due to Winter/Summer rate changes. At this point however you’re on the hook for it as there is nothing you can do.

As week six rolls in the epoxy paint barrier coats are being applied, sanded and re applied to fill in gaps and variances. After it was checked off by the boss the go-ahead was given for bottom paint. We chose to go with Sea-Hawk brand Biocop TF as it was recommended by other boaters in our area and by our diver. Three coats were applied to the hull with an extra in the high-wear areas. Time will tell on its longevity.

We came back to the yard the day before splash day as we had heard the hull was painted and they are finishing up with installing the props and new underwater lights. WOW did it look nice! However, after a close-up inspection we noticed about seven areas that blistered once again through all that fresh epoxy barrier and paint. Unknowingly to us this “can be” normal and they sent someone right away to grind them out, add fiber & resin, epoxy, sand, primer and repaint. Whew…crisis averted! Splash day came with no hiccups and it was nice to be at the helm once again. After we backed out of the slings we tied up to check systems and set the initial squish of the shaft packings then set our compass North back to La Conner.

So what do you do as a live aboard if your boat is out of the water? Air B&Bs, hotels, in-laws….that’s right, all of the above. We can’t quite say that this was the worst part of the whole process but, we’re not looking forward to any vacations via hotel stay anytime soon.