Looking a bit closer though, she was after high tide and went off to find a
still mostly sound under all the crap. cafe and have breakfast while the tide
The hulls had hardly any water (about dropped.
half a cup each) in them and were
otherwise clean and dry on the inside. It On return the tide had dropped
had been a couple of years since I had sufficiently to walk around the boat so
sold my last yacht and I was missing we started dismantling her and scraped
not being able to get out sailing. As I off the worst of the fouling.
stood surveying my new purchase it
occurred to me that with a new pair of I hired a car trailer with a 6 metre deck
rudders and a paint job to take her home on. Four of us were
easily able to carry the hulls up to the
I could have a boat for the summer.
The hulls in the carport
trailer and then it was just a question of
I thought about it for a while and fitting everything around them. The trip
weighed up the pro’s and con’s. She home was uneventful, with everything offloaded by mid-afternoon. I spent the rest
had a good rig, virtually unused sails, of the afternoon contemplating what to do next and making a to-do list.
and the hulls/beams were sound. I’d
have to make up rudders, tillers and The following weekend, I set to and cleaned all the accumulated guano off. It
crossbar, probably replace the windows took a whole day off scrubbing with bleach and water to remove it all. There were
and fix a few other things here and nooks and crannies everywhere that the stuff was lodged in. Finally she was clean,
there. While she wasn’t quite what I and all the old ropes and anything else still permeated with poo, consigned to the
wanted it seemed a good way to pick rubbish.
up some more building skills and get on
the water in a cat. It certainly seemed
DOING IT
more favourable than the scratch
I decided the best way to attack the work was to completely prep and paint the
build I’d been planning, but finding the
topsides and antifoul a side at a time before flipping them over and doing the other
thought of rather daunting. I figured if I
side. One nice thing about the V hull was being able to work on the flat while doing
brought her home in September (2005)
this. I got busy with the orbital sander and over a few weekends soon had two hull
I should have her ready for re-launching
sides top-coated and primed for antifouling. I proceeded to apply the anti fouling.
in January and catch the best of the
The dark red looked good against the off-white topsides. Then the gremlins struck.
summer weather. The previous owner
After I’d finished anti fouling I had left the hulls as they were, finished side up
agreed to help me dry the boat out,
intending to turn them the following weekend and starting the process on the
dismantle and trail her home behind his
other side(s). This left the surfaces exposed to the sun for a good portion of the
4wd.
day, which led to the outer veneer of the ply checking (splitting in places) below the
waterline. Above the waterline – white paint - no problem. Below the waterline –
Planning to beach the boat on the
dark red antifoul – checking. This was entirely due to differential heating between
early morning high tide, we met at
the colours of paint. The difference was obvious to the touch. This was further
the mooring area at 6.00am. With
confirmed by a portion of one hull that was largely shaded not being affected. I
no rudders we decided to motor the
hadn’t even considered this might be an issue. After all the boat had previously
boat rafted to the dinghy around the
had red topsides! I didn’t know what to do to try and arrest this. I experimented
point to the beach to dry her out,.
with sanding and epoxying the splits, however more of them kept appearing. It
Fortunately it was a calm morning.
soon became obvious that the only way to fix things properly was to add a layer
The only problem we struck during the
of glass up to the waterline (I absolutely refused to sand off all the new topsides
exercise was being unable to drop the
paint). The clatter of horses hooves I could hear in my head was the sound of my
mooring! For some reason the mooring
timetable escaping.
surveyor had left a line tied from the
swivel to the front crossbeam, which
After looking at the alternatives for
we were unable to untie. Of course all
removing antifouling I decided to carve it off
the gear had been taken off the boat
with a belt sander and go straight through
previously, so the only knife we had
the old paint and epoxy down to bare
was the blunt 50mm clasp knife on
wood in one operation. I bought a bunch
my key ring. It took some time, in the
of cheap 60 grit belts, new filters for my
dark, to saw through the 12mm or
respirator and a new set of safety goggles.
so braid that had been used, during
I made sure I was completely covered up
which I was able to reflect on what I
and was scrupulous about cleaning up the
was undertaking and make a series of
mess after. It took about half a day to get
unfavourable comparisons between the
one side back to bare ply, after which I filled
The hulls on the drive
mooring surveyor and various parts of
the splits with epoxy filler and then glassed
human anatomy. Once the line was free
over a layer of 100gsm glass cloth. The finished job looked good and I began to
we were off. I was impressed by how
have renewed faith in the project.
easily she moved through the water –
especially given the amount of growth
Over the next few weekends I glassed all the rest of the hull sides to the waterline.
hanging off her. The rest of the move
Why not glass it all the way up? I had considered this but apart from having to
was trouble free. We beached her just
»
  JULY 2009 : MULTIHULL REVIEW  35
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49