Hull Repaint

As it has been nearly four years since Patience last had her hull painted, we decided to have her taken out of the water to repaint everything up to the level of the gunwales. She was lifted out on 11th November, cleaned down and put under cover by the very capable crew at Oundle Marina.  After a thorough cleaning, the hull was found to be generally in very good order, but they wire brushed, treated and primed some areas of rust adjacent to the rubbing strakes.  They then repainted her hull sides with two coats of bitumen, with an extra one for good measure immediately above and below the waterline.  We then tackled the red and white bands around the stern, the red tiller, the inside of the weed hatch and the dark green sides of the hull immediately above the bitumen. Four new sacrificial anodes were attached, two at the bow and two at the stern. The old ones that still had some life left in them were left in position.

The quality of all the work done by the marina staff was excellent and they were very helpful in giving us access to her to do our own painting.  After five weeks on dry land, she is due to be craned back into the water on 16th December and we hope that, after such a thorough job, her hull will be good for at least another four years.

Stern before work started

After cleaning and rust treatment

Ready to go back in the water

Paint Job

Patience is a reasonably dark green throughout. We find this suitably subdued and unfussy, as becomes dear Patience. Its official term is either dark green, Donegal Green or Racing Green - each slightly different from the other and easily confused. I don't mind which we use, but it must be consistent. The results of mixing instead of matching become apparent (though not obvious) in places where we have patched small areas instead of a whole panel.
While putting off the big effort of repainting we have looked at other boats of course and so, on a short visit to Bristol docks, I was interested to see these two.

Painted as a rural landscape with pale sky

The opposite of camouflage

Let invention and creativity thrive - but on balance Patience will remain dark green!

Painting in Preparation

Sunniest and warmest day of the year so far, so John and I were drawn to attend to Patience and to paint her less accessible regions.
The water tank was painted with bitumen paint last year and drained over the winter but there are still small rust spots so John donned his submariners' painting gear and leapt in.

 

Memo: try to do this with another boater in attendance; make sure you're fit enough to clamber in and out of a tight space; beware fumes; wear painting clothes

Meanwhile at the other end I was tending to the gas lockers.  The tight fitting lids seem not tight enough to prevent water seeping in and as the deck is flat not cambered water tends to stay inside the gas lockers - despite drain holes. So it was out with the gas and in with the wire brush. From one locker alone I extracted a pound weight of damp rust: not pleasant and not good for the boat.

However by scrubbing, scratching and mopping - and an important beer break while the lockers dried out - we were able to give the bottoms of the lockers a good coat of Hammerite. Should be all hardened by tomorrow so we can put the gas back in. John also fitted some draught excluder to the underside of the lid to see if that will help exclude the water.

Tools of the trade: battery powered drill and wire brush attachment, hand held wire brush, draught excluder, newspaper and elbow grease.

Memo: check the lockers next winter and apply more Hammerite if necessary!

Painting

After scraping and sanding comes painting. Yesterday John scraped the gunwhales and rubbing strakes to reveal paint that was flaking off but very little rust, to our relief. I undercoated the lockers and the foredeck.
Today I aimed to paint a top coat on the foredeck and lockers, but the wind was so fierce and the air so full of willow seed that I abandoned any idea of top coat and concentrated on the port gunwhale and strakes which I could reach from the jetty. Having daubed these with anti-rust yesterday I added a coat of primer today, crawling on all fours and dabbing the brush at likely spots.
The flurries of willow seed  ...

... (picture from Wild About Britain) were beginning to subside, caught in spiders' webs and in nooks and crannies of the hull, but sudden winds brought out more flurries so any wet painted surface would have become a furry coat in minutes.
A chap along the way says we should just leave it and rub it off when the paint has dried. He says you can do this with flies caught in wet paint too - leave them to die then break their legs off. Sounds rather unkind - but what else can you do? Answer: leave further painting till another day....

Applying the Primer

Spurred on by the knowledge that we have now had 3,000 hits on our Blog (well it sounds a lot but I guess Google gets that many per second *) and that the hard work of First Scraping was over I maintained my enthusiasm by applying the first coat of primer.
It took nearly 15 minutes of constantly stirring the tin with a specially imported stick to get the lumpy stuff mixed with the wet stuff (how long had it been standing like that? Think geological time, as the sands sink slowly to the sea taking the bones of dead creatures while the waters float effortlessly above) but then I was at it with the brush, spreading primer over the areas I'd anti-rusted yesterday, concentrating on the areas without paint, leaving the good painted areas for a full coat of undercoat later. My thinking is that if I can build up with primer the areas that have rusted and flaked away, one day all the surface will be glassy smooth....
So here's the result of stage III -

 Thrilled and astonished? Well OK, I don't blame you. Yes it does look like a map of the world before the continents split up. Or the Swedish archipelago. And it is quite like a piebald pony skin. And I did have to dance around the wet bits while I painted so I didn't tread on them ... but actually this is what it was supposed to look like. The rusty bits were exposed, the edges feathered, anti-rust applied and now primer added.
Next, a bit more sanding to smooth it down, another coat of primer, then the undercoat followed by the top coat, both applied with a roller for that smoooooth finish. And of course that's just the foredeck. Lots more to be done .... don't mention The Forth Bridge.

* Postscript -  I just read that Google gets 34,000 hits per second and a billion per day, though as Google won't tell, and as another source suggests it's 2 billion per day, I reckon they're all just guessing.  Anyway, I'm pleased we got 3,000 ! Thank you!

Scraping and Sanding

I've put it off for  long enough. I know Patience needs a re-paint - but she's just so loooong!
I believe preparation is the key to a good diy job but it's also a good excuse for putting off doing the real hard work. I actually try to justify procrastination!
I'd got everything in place - sandpaper, wet and dry paper, newspaper, battery operated sander, wire brushes, wire brush attachment, safety goggles, dust mask, knee pads, anti rust paint, primer, top coat, masking tape, pint of bitter ... it was just the time and the oomph I didn't have. But now I've started, so I must finish.
Today with all the kit in place I scoured the fore deck with the drill and wire brush attachment (safety goggles on, I looked like Biggles). Then after 30 minutes, just getting into it, it just stopped. Turns out my drill drains quickly under continuous use and 30 minutes is all it can cope with. Recharging from the inverter on board took 2 hours - a convenient break for a sandwich, pint of Adnams, a chapter of my latest must-read book (The Information by James Gleick, since you ask) and I nearly managed another half hour until I had to resort to real sandpaper and a hand held wire brush.
Now I have dust in my nails, a faint buzzing sensation in my hands and the knowledge that if I were a burglar they'd never trace me by my finger prints. I also know there's a layer of black anti-rust on the scraped surface of the foredeck and that when I next get a chance I'll be able to prime it then roll on the Donegal Green.
And that will be that! Only two sides and gunwales comprising 45 foot of green, some 45 feet of black down to the waterline, a cream roof 35 feet long, an aft deck, the lockers and hatch at the front....  And somehow to delicately paint the name, number and surrounding border on each side. Before the summer's over.

Polished and Shining

John and I set to and waxed and polished Patience. Last week we did the starboard side, this week we reversed her in (not an easy task - I recommend getting as close as you can and then manhauling it!) and waxed the port side.
My how beautiful she looks. The chap up the way tells us the previous owner used baby oil to give her a sheen before we bought her, and we can't help think that a) that's not a great idea b) it's surely washed off now c) wax polish is the long term answer.
While doing this we confirm that a previous painting was done without proper preparation, which explains the way a layer of green paint is peeling off the gunwhales. So another job is lined up - scrape, prime, paint and add a layer of non-slip sand to the final coat. Patience deserves no less.

Painting the Water Tank

Patience is equipped with a large integral water storage tank built into her bow, with a capacity of several hundred litres. One of the recommendations from the survey was to repaint it with a potable tank paint, as some rust is beginning to appear. Today I plucked up courage to climb into the tank through the rather small hatch in the foredeck, which is visible in the photo at the top of the blog (not for those with either claustrophobia or a bigger than average waistline).

This enabled me to remove the final few inches of water that was trapped below the outlet pipe and make a closer inspection of the tank's condition. I should add here that the tank had previously been drained down as part of Patience's preparation for winter! Although the galvanised steel is in pretty good condition, it does indeed need repainting, with some rust visible and paint flaking off in places. I found a part tin of bitumen paint on board that is advertised as being suitable for drinking water tanks, although Patience is also equipped with a separate plastic drinking water tank in the galley, so we won't be drinking the water from the bow tank. So the next task is to wirebrush the old paint and apply a couple of new coats, wearing a boiler suit and a facemask.