Day five - treating rust, starting to prime

Day five

We finished up the sanding at the beginning of the day then cleaned the dust off - brushing, vacuuming and tack cloth.

David being careful not to drop the vacuum cleaner off the edge of the curved roof.

We treated any rust spots, starting at the front of the boat so that by the time we had finished at the back we could begin putting primer on. The easiest and by far the best way was by roller.

Treating the rust on the back deck.

By the end of the day we had primed the whole of one side, the front deck and doors and the whole of the roof.

At the end of the day Cath managed to lose concentration for a moment - the very last descent of a step ladder she stepped the wrong way - into air. Fortunately she only has more bruises to show for it.

Day four - yet more sanding and stripping

Day four - more preparation.

All day we've been angle grinding, sanding (with sander and hand sanding), wire brushing or using the Dremel on fiddly bits. We think we're mostly finished with sanding. Tomorrow there will be some more sanding of paintwork, but we hope that we will be able to treat any rust spots too.

Each day we are working until we really can't go on any more - about 8 to 10 hours solid. One of us will cook and wash up (David for the second day - good practice for when he goes to university in September) while the others keep working, but there isn't really the luxury of having a break.

David cleaning the front hinges.

Wire brushing the front locker lid.

The front deck has had a rubber mat on it for the last few years (we bought the boat like that), and the paint underneath is flaky - so need to be stripped to bare metal. The sides of the front deck are in good order, but need to be sanded so that they can be repainted - a pigging, awful job. Eye protection for spectacle wearers quickly fills up with dust so you can't see anything - whatever happens your eyes are filled with dust. The noise is phenomenal, because the empty water tank underneath booms with the noise of the sander. It's also very difficult to get into the corners without hanging your legs over the side.

The front deck after scraping, angle grinding and sanding.

But then while we were eating our lunch the sun came out!

Rear doors sanded, and tunnel bands stripped.

By the end of the day most of the boat is in bare metal or sanded back to flat where the paint is in good order.

Day three - more preparation

From inside the boat.
Today we are tired - exhausted. We ache all over, we have bruises we didn't know about and we are HUNGRY! We have more preparation to do - sanding and removing rust with power tools. The red dust seems to get everywhere, inside the boat is a gloomy red from the dust on the windows.

Our hands are raw from sanding and scraping and are engrained with red paint dust.

There is more angle grinding to do.

Scraping paint.

Teenager with power tool.

Removing rust spots and scraping the front deck.

End of day three - front doors and side two.

Day two - sanding the sides

Day two - we started by erecting the scaffold tower.

David put it to good use to scrape off the name transfers.

Then Cath started to sand the sides

We still needed to remove more paint from the roof.

But it was quite disturbing when the thunderstorm started:

Progress on the front locker and the back deck

Second name panel - after removal of transfers and after sanding:

Sanding the gunwale.

So far we've stripped the roof and sanded all of one side and the name panel on the other, as well as making progress on the front locker and back deck. We've still got to finish the blacking, but that can be done in a day or two.

Chalice at the end of day 2 .

Starting the roof and blacking

Chalice came out of the water onto the slipway first thing this morning.

We started scraping the roof because some of the paint seemed to have teflon primer. Not all of it was poorly attached, and we had to work quite hard on removing some of it.

Sanding with power tools

At the same time we pressure washed the hull, and scraped away any loose blacking.

The engineer did some welding for us, attaching some new loops for the fenders.

At the end of the day we stopped sanding the roof and took turns at the first coat of blacking the hull.

The roof at the end of the first day.

Blacking the hull with bitumen paint.

The night before

Chalice needs a repaint. She comes out of the water tomorrow morning, and we set about getting as much paint and rust off her before repainting her. We have until the morning of Monday 30th July when she will be returned to the marina. Because there is limited time we only have a few days for preparation before we start getting the paint on. While we are painting her topside we will also be blacking her bottom.

We have tried to do some preparation in advance, but have been limited by the dreadful weather this summer.