Can't wait to be back in the water!

[workinpr0gress]

Well I am catching the itch to get back in the water. I didn't have the time I hoped for in the offseason. I am kinda feeling like missing a bunch of the Spring Striper run for the SC projects of mine I had planned for the offseason is insanity. Oh well, when you lie to yourself your'e only being "overly ambitious" anyway. So some project's will get done in the water, like recoring the hatches. Getting starboard happy with the console. Filling screw holes.

I did make some progress.

The bow rail's off and gone onto another beautiful restored 74' 20sf funny enough.

Redid the the front drain.

I raised the motor back to where she ran best.

I just blocked her up to take the bottom down to smooth the bottom down and put on a waterbased ablative. i know all about the different blast media, i'd still rather not. I'm doing it by hand to see if I can get away without a barrier coat or repair for 2 seasons. From what I can see it looks amazing. No pocks, blisters or harlines. its nice around all the drains. Only one small patch that can easily be addressed with a 6 pack and my ipod.

Whoever intitaly painted the bottom didn't prep it correctly, luckily for me. There is a large amount of peeling over glossy patches or very light sanding strokes. I suspect someone used enamel topside paint at some point also because it was a trailered boat and was much to glossy. Last year I just slapped some paint on to get in the water but I really wanted to get the bottom nice this season. So I started by breaking out the power washer and a steady hand.

It shouldn't need much sanding or chemicals to clean it up, well relatively speaking for this many coats of paint. Then we'll see if it needs a barrier coat when I get it where I want it. In three years at the latest I'm gonna go over the whole boat as needed and Awlgrip the whole boat.