May 25, 2009

Just For the Hull Of It

Fast-forward through the coldest, snowiest, most eternal winter in the history of North America when Smitten spent a lot of days covered with this...

...and, ta-da! it’s time finally for spring launch.

Well, not so fast, Bordeaux Breath. Got a little housekeeping to do before the big splash. This year, due to current household economic conditions, a lot of the spring prep that we used to blithely hire out, we are doing ourselves.

Let’s take a peek at what the big guy has been up to:

(Don't look now, honey, but there's a Teletubbie under on the boat.)

I had been hinting since last summer for a fresh look for the hull, and Dave was tired of the ablative nature of the old paint (more about that next post) so this seemed like the year to repaint the bottom. It had been a few seasons since our last foray into the bottom-painting jungle, though I still wear clothes spattered with the happy blue paint we used.

This year, using a variety of means including sandpaper, chemical strippers, influence-peddling, payola, physical threats, dynamite and my lemon-and-garlic salad dressing, my co-captain meticulously removed every inch of the old bottom paint.


Little by little, with great shedding of blood, sweat and tears, and selfless sacrificing of time he would otherwise spend rubbing my feet and popping Swiss chocolates into my mouth, off came the paint.

Down the port side, 'round the horn, up the starboard side...

...and let's not forget mr. rudder. A huge job well done. And perhaps one of the greatest deterrents to even considering buying a bigger boat.

If character is built on every linear hull foot that’s scraped, stripped, primed, painted, waxed and buffed, we have enough characters now to cast Les Miz. Well, at least Dave does. He performed most of these miracles. I just stepped in at the end, spread a little wax, and took the curtain call.

Next up, the bottom painting process.