Haulout Day 9
03 November 2011 | Spice Island Marine Services, Grenada
Jeff
Pam climbed back up on her scaffolding today to continue working on the three coats of wax. My first job was to install the hull zinc anode. This is a zinc plate that is attached to the bottom of the boat with two bolts the go thru the hull and connect to a ground wire inside the hull. Because thes bolts go thru hull if they are at all loose they could leak. Any leak could potentially sink the boat. So not having these bolt leak is extremely important. So everytime I install this zinc I am wary of any movement in the bolt when I tighten the nut that holds the zinc plate inplace. Well, I got bad news this morning. The forward most bolt moved. So, it had to be removed, cleaned, the hole cleaned and resealed when it was re-instaled in the hull. Once the bolt and hole are prepped it becomes a two person job because one person has to be on the insidemof the boat to hold the bolt while the other person tightens it from the outside. I recruited Pam to accomplish this task. Once that was completed, Pam went back to her waxing and I went to work on the MaxProp. The propeller on our boat is called a MaxProp it is a feathering prop meaning its blades turn to be parallel with the flow of the water when we are sailing. This reduces drag and increases the performance of the boat under sail. The prop has grease fittings somthat you can fill its insides with grease to facilitate its proper operation. I greased the prop using our grease gun and then cleaned the outside of the prop with a solvent so that paint will adhere to it. Once that was completed I spayed the prop with three coat of an antifouling paint to keep the barnacles off it. Another good day, tomorrow we are sceduled to launch.