Team Seacats

???????????It takes about three years for me to forget how much sanding is involved with regelcoating the bottom of a catamaran hull to get a good finish and fair bottom. It’s a lot. A whole lot. At this point, most of the doing is done and I finally have something to admire! After filling the void and incision I made in the hull, I built it back up using 2.5oz S-glass fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin. I then sanded that smooth and fair(ish) using my hand held, homemade, long board. I then faired with epoxy and micro-balloons and later with bondo professional filler to finish out the surface and fill pin holes.

I also fixed and faired out several dents and chips elsewhere on the hull – including the road rash we acquired somewhere.

The daggerboards on this boat had some pretty serious vertical scratches from sand and other debris in the daggerboard wells – and just from general use. I attacked them with a palm sander and then checking that I had sanded away the scratches by spraying on some dark sandable primer and sanding it away. I was surprised that I still had quite some distance to go to remove the scratches. I ended up getting almost all the way through the gelcoat on one side of each board…so I was going to have to gelcoat more than just the tips. One board had also seen a pretty bad impact and about four inches of the tip was previously repaired but left raw with epoxy and carbon showing. I reshaped that tip and filled / faired it as well.

Everything was then masked and protected. I put brown paper down on the major areas of the garage floor to protect it (I plan on coating it with epoxy when the garage is finished).

It’s go-time for gelcoat! I didn’t have time to take progress photos here because A) I had gloves on with nasty nasty chemicals and b) gelcoat was on it’s way to curing in my HVLP paint gun. Of note, I did purchase a new HVLP gun from Northerntool for about $40 (a href=http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200319459_200319459LINK/a). It has a larger tip at 2.3mm and it sprayed the gelcoat quite well. Even with the gelcoat un-thinned, it sprayed pretty well. It could have sprayed a little faster and I would have been happier…but if I thin it 5 to 10% next time, I think this gun will be perfect. After mixing and metering 8oz of gelcoat at a time to extend the amount of time any gelcoat stood in my paint gun (it took three 8oz batches), everything was well coated. I had already prepared my other smaller (1.5mm?) tip HVLP gun with PVA and immediately switched to it and laid down a top skim coat of PVA (poly-vinyl alcohol) that after flashing off the alcohol leaves a saran-wrap-like film and very effectively seals the gelcoat from the air allowing it to cure hard all the way through. I’ve tried other curing systems / additives with gelcoat but find that this is the purest and most foolproof method of getting a full cure.  Removal of the PVA is easy – simply peel away what you can and wash off the rest.  It’s very water soluble and on takes a few minutes with some water and a rag to remove it completely.

Time to sand some more! Thankfully, I had some seasoned help from Ted Bogardus who sails with me locally. In one day, we had both daggerboards and hull sanded and polished (120 grit, 220 grit, 400 grit wet, 600 grit wet, heavy rubbing compound, light rubbing compound). We had to chase the shade as the sun moved in the sky…the dolly made that really easy.  The end result is good – I’m happy and can’t wait to splash it. We do have a little more polishing to do on the sides and top of the boat before that can take place, however…

….and a little cleaning.

strongLearnings: /strong1) when sanding away the orange peel on the bottoms, either go straight to 220 grit or only use 120 just to knock the high spots off. I carried the 120 too far and had to work really hard to get the sanding scratches gone. Even then, I was left with a few spots where the scratches still existed – but they were minor enough to not be noticeable but for the most close inspection. 2) I’m going to try to thin the gelcoat a little. I learned last time that thinning it too much is a bad thing and was left with soft / partially cured gelcoat. I compensated this time by not thinning it at all and left a little more orange peel surface for me to deal with by sanding. 3) Having help is awesome! Thanks Ted.

strongTips I can share:/strong 1) Hotel Key-cards make EXCELLENT resin squeegees. I collect them from sales and service guys to keep a bunch on hand so I can just toss them when done. 2) A top-coat of PVA on top of freshly sprayed gelcoat is a sure fire method to get a solid cure and it cleans up really easily.

Up next; Our good friend Bill at Mainsail Marine has restitched and reinforced the trampoline and it’s ready to go on once the boat is cleaned up and the last polishing completed.

Oh, anyone have any spider removal advice? This is the fourth Black Widow I’ve found around the garage and I’ve about had enough of that (maybe they’re so prevalent because I removed a wooded area to build the garage or all the nooks and crannies with the exposed framing?)…and this woman was a monster!