The Last of the Boatyard Mania....
01 May 2008 | Marmaris Yacht Marine, Turkey
Capts. Dave and Desiree
Yes, I am aware we have fallen behind with our web updates... So here I will make a brief run through the work and improvements made in the month I lived on the hard while in the Marmaris Yacht Marine Boatyard.
The new bottom is complete. Now most non-sailors would say "so what" to this, but to anyone who has been involved by either paying for this type of work, actually doing it or both, knows what a enormous undertaking it can become. Here's what happened. The Gone Native is now 9 years old and spent 6 of theses years in the Caribbean where the growth on the hull requires an antifouling coat every year and sometimes sooner. I personally put a coat on in France in 2006. Each time you switch brands, you usually use a new "tie coat" (primer). Because of supply line issues, what's for sale, or on special, this makes for a hell of a lot of layers. Now enter last season... Since Desiree had her Family Practice Recertification Boards last July we were not able get the Yacht into the water to almost August. At that time the temperature in this end of Turkey was 110 degrees (42 C) in the shade. The hull, which is black and caught the afternoon sun, developed a skin temperature far in excess of that. End result, the antifouling paint turned to gum and the "tie coats" failed, leaving the boat bottom looking like an alkali dry lake in Death Valley. We opted to ignore this last season with the plan to repair this mess prior to leaving on the EMYR (East Med Yacht Rally - see next update).
This peeling mud flat was in places up to a quarter inch thick and a sensible way to remove and prep the bottom had to be found. This of course, was to hire it out to the Turks. They tried chemical peeling (basically paint remover) - Failed, They tried scraping and chipping but the process was glacial. In the end a slurry / grit blaster was used. I took the bad paint off but it left the bottom looking like a cheap golf course with a gopher problem.
There is no problem you can't solve the democratic way... bury it in Euros (notice I didn't say Lira or dollars, they are cheap in comparison). So, with a snow shovel and a checkbook, I attempted lay this to rest. A shovel full of Euros for fairing compound and labor, another shovel full for a first coat of barriers, another shovel full for 7 more barrier coats of another type, and several shovel fulls for antifouling, which is scary expensive here. YIKES! Add in 3 weeks of my near daily participation and voila, a sexy new bottom.
When not painting the hull or overseeing the prep I also placed in new shelves for the kids school books, improved the main computers wifi capabilities with new antenna, installed a new toilet (which doesn't work for some reason I have yet to diagnose), changed the seals on the sail drives and serviced the propellers. I did a myriad of other nonsense and we got out of the boatyard and into the water just 20 hours before linking up with the EMYR fleet. We are now on our way around the South East portion of Turkey towards the Middle East (and yes, we are aware of the political and military issues and watching them closely). Please stay tuned as now the adventure begins.