Hull

Overview

The hull needed serious attention. Years of neglect meant osmosis blisters throughout both hulls, plus a few surprises — someone had screwed directly through the hull to mount something in the engine bay. The screws and holes got fixed and epoxied over. Also a few previous holes from the engine bay and simply been plugged with sealant, so pulled this out and repaired the holes with epoxy. The Saildrive / Sonic still needs some attention.

Initial Sand & Stripping

First job was stripping back the old antifoul and getting down to the gelcoat to assess the damage. The boatyard did the sandblasting and sanding back to reveal the blisters, and the top half was sanded back to check for any other repairs needed.

Osmosis Treatment

Once stripped, the extent of the osmosis was clear, not sure when it was ever treated, but spent time epoxy’ing over all the blisters, repairing a few other cracks, and generally getting things looking smooth and slick again. The boatyard helped with several layers of primer, and I did a number of passes to smooth over blisters and cracks with epoxy filler. Final coat of primer and she’s ready for antifouling before going into the water.

Upper Hull

This was sanded back to smooth over a few areas where something had rubbed off the gelcoat, or the anchor had scratched the hull. Worst area was around the rudders. Largely just cosmetic, sanding back and making smooth. The next job was going to be primer & fresh top-coat.

Engine Bay Area

For some unknown reason, some new fixtures in the engine bay had been screwed entirely through the hull, revealing screw points sticking out! Not a fun find, but these have been ground back and smoothed over. Also quite a few previous holes in the hull had been patched with sealant and painted over, so these were cleaned out and filled more securely with epoxy. There is a fair amount of sealant used around the Sonic Drive - this needs looking at as it’s not the prettiest.

Solar Cabling

Cables from the solar arch had previously been routed through the upper deck, but these had been damaged and leaked. These were filled and new solar cables routed under the rear deck, and then through the cockpit voids which have drainage. This avoids routing external cables directly into the cabins and removes any potential future issue with damage or leaking gromits.

Waterline

The original waterline was recorded, and after sanding, was redrawn using a laser-line. Should be ready for when the new painting is done.