Time to Clean the Bottom
19 May 2012 | Maple Bay, BC
Dakota Crew
It's time...it's time to have her hauled out and we really need to clean and inspect the bottom of Dakota. We haven't seen the bottom at all...even when we bought her a year and 1/2 ago! We saw pictures but never up close and personal!
It was a beautiful day and promised to be sunny with a nice cool breeze! She was lifted and Holy Toledo Batman!....we had a whole farm of muscles growing along the bottom of the keel. I'm guessing the previous owner (The Nut) didn't paint the bottom of the keel at all!
We had the sea life scraped off and the hull pressure washed and we got settled on some blocks and stands. Now for the hard part...scraping and sanding and then painting. By the end of the day we were both tinged blue with paint and I wore much of the ablative paint on my legs and hands.....but we got 2 coats of paint on and she looked very nice.
We had our 5 year inspection done while she was out and besides a few minor fixable problems, the boat was sound! Phew! That's a relief! Dave also did a close inspection of the hull and no problems seen! Double phew!
The second day on the hard was polishing and waxing and then back in the water. We took a spin around the bay and noticed a huge difference in the speed and handling....Dave removed a large zinc attached to the rudder right behind the propeller....and the disturbance that it caused was quite noticeable. Now the boat can pretty much steer in a straight line on her own.
Dave has been down at the boat for the last 3 days installing a new waste tank with a mascerator pump, the new barbeque, and cleaning up generally. It's the Wooden Boat Show down at the Marina this weekend and he has been entertained with the various boats coming in.
I've sorted and bought the provisions for an up coming cruise this week and we will start taking loads down tonight and tomorrow.
Let the sailing season on the West Coast begin!