Bottom Paint

It's that time again! 

For several months our Diver had been giving us hints that Circe's bottom paint was starting to look a little shabby and that a fresh bottom job might be a good idea! Well, it had been over 4 years so we thought we probably should take his advice and do something. The last bottom paint job was done back in the summer of 2010 by the guys at the Grand Marina Boatyard in Alameda,  when we first bought Circe. As there aren't many DIY yards in the Bay Area, and because we really didn't relish the mess and stress of a DIY job, we decided to go back to Grand Marina and let the Pro's take care of things again.

This photo shows the bottom in 2010, just before we went back in the water. At that time we had taken the Yard's recommendation that we use Interlux Micron 66 and now we were interested to see how well it had held up.

Here is a shot of Circe coming ashore again, for the first time since June 2010. 

The wind generator caused a bit of drama during the haul out as it came really close to the cross frame of the Travelift. 

The next few shots show the state of the hull after power washing. Plenty of slime came off but there was no hard growth. There were a few spots where the paint was gone but, overall, it doesn't look too bad at all.....really good actually, after 4 years.












The worst area was directly above the through-hull connected to the galley sink drain. Evidently the frequent discharge of warm water had done a number on the bottom paint.

Checking the hull after the initial sanding. The sharp eyed reader will notice the prop and prop shaft are out of the boat. We took the opportunity of the boat being out of the water to fit a PSS shaft seal conversion. 

There were a few tiny, dime sized, blisters up at the water line that were dealt with by sanding during the prep phase. 

Here is the first couple of passes with the paint roller and.........












......here's the finished job, ready to go back in the water. 

Here's hoping for another 4 years of life out of the new bottom.

Back in the Water

We splashed Circe this week after getting her a fresh bottom paint job and fixing some electrical issues (detailed elsewhere in a separate post). Everything turned out very well and we are anxious to get her into her new slip and start on the topsides cosmetics.

After researching the many bottom paint products available, and recalling our own past experiences, we finally settled on 2 coats of blue Interlux Micron CSC for the old girl. As Circe was sitting really low on her lines we also raised the waterline a couple of inches. Unlike most other ablative coatings Interlux claims CSC will not deteriorate due to drying during a 'mid-cycle' haul out and will 're-activate' when the boat is put back in the water. We shall see!

While she was hauled out we also had the accent stripe repainted to match the sheer stripe, canvas and bottom paint and had the hull buffed out. The 'gold' paint on the original accent stripe had faded to invisibility and, to our eyes, gold just didn't look right in the overall colour scheme. Also there were quite a few fender scuffs, non of which were bad, just ugly! The paint, buff and wax job alone made the whole boat look really good!   

Now that the hull is looking much better the heat is on to get the topsides cleaned up, buffed and waxed and the exterior bright work refinished.