Bottom paint

Finished the barrier coats on the hull. After sanding the hull with 80 grit with 6" RO sanders we wiped down and rolled the layers of Interlux Inter-Protect 2000E . We rolled 4 inches above the waterline as the boot stripe will be 2 inches above the waterline so the InterProtect will over lap 2 inches into the boot stripe. We re-marked the waterline using flexible clear PVC  tubing and water  with blue dye. It was a quick process for one of us to be at the transom at the waterline mark and watch the dye and call up or down to the other until the dye was at the mark. Worked our way around the hull and took probably no more than 20min per side.

I had thought about using the Interlux two part Perfection paint for the free-board but I found out that it recently has been discontinued in Canada so that left Awlgrip. I had favoured the Protection as it was easily maintainable by the user and while Awlgrip is one tough paint it is not maintainable and very expensive. Well, once all the reducers and converters etc. are available in early August we can spray the free-board. In the mean time I un-masked the bulwark and am sanding it down to give it a third coat of Kingston Grey Brightside paint and then put on the half oval brass rubbing strip onto the rub rail. I will also get to work on the chain plate casting patterns and start milling up some more hull ceiling and bulkhead staving for the interior.

Masked off and Inter-Protect 2000E rolled on hull. With the metal stands and my old lumber boat stand gone one can really see the shape of the hull.

Back to Work on the Falmouth Cutter

Will the blog live doctor?...Yes, I think I hear a slight heart beat...there is hope...

Last time I posted here I had written there would be a long pause. Long indeed. This past week I finally got back to work on the Falmouth Cutter. A lot has happened since I was last working on the boat and it felt a bit strange and also good to be back on the boat. I spent over three years in Sweden and completed my Journeyman's (Gesäll) exam at the Carl Malmsten school on Öland and worked for a small cabinet shop on the same island. I learned a lot and spent the three years refining my skills in furniture and cabinet making. I have to say that building my Gesäll exam Cabinet was probably one of the hardest pieces of woodworking I have done. One of the nice things about woodworking is one never stops learning and there are always new challenges to test your skills. Some of the work I did can be seen at this link:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjwoodworking/sets/

It was a bit of a culture shock to be back in Canada and that was best dealt with by going on a month and a half road trip with the trusty 1989 Toyota Land Cruiser camping and hiking and canoeing around British Columbia and the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. After that it was busy with settling into life here and cabinet work. I also had to re-new my teaching licence and spent a semester teaching woodwork at a high school.

My plan this summer and fall is to complete the woodworking on the boat. Most of the work is interior work but I also need to make casting patterns for the chainplates and other hardware. The first thing that needed to be done was to paint the hull. Bryan from Channel Cutter Yachts who builds the FC34 came down this week to help get the hull ready. I had cleaned up the boat shed and the years of accumulated stuff under the boat as well as torn down the high scaffolding which I do not need any more and would be in the way of painting. I built new lower scaffolding and we sanded down the hull with 6" random orbital sanders. Next week we will mark out the waterline and paint the barrier coats below the water line. My friend who did all the coating work when I worked at Waterline Yachts will spray the freeboard.

I did a complete cleaning of the boat before covering it all up in preparation for painting. It was the first time I had seen all the cardboard off the deck and the whole boat clean in a long time. I thought I would post a few pictures. Next posting will be the painted hull.

First time I could look at the hull with out the scaffolding in the way for many years

Bryan busy sanding under the waterline

Boat is masked off and sanded ready for painting