Painting!

After finishing the console I set to work cleaning up the interior…what a mess things were under that console!) The month of November was spent sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding, sanding, sanding,

Finally I got the inside of the hull to a condition where I felt it was good enough. I need to remember that this boat is not a showpiece, it is a pickup truck for the water. In fact, earlier this week I recognized the fundamental tension and conflict I feel with boats and boat care. I love them so very much, but treat them so very poorly. Even a coddled boat is left marinating in saltwater all summer, exposed to sun and rain and bird poop. Of course, if the boat is going to be used, it is going to get some abuse. Perhaps the only good thing about winter is the time it affords me to remedy the indignities the boats endure during the rest of the year.

Anyway, the painting went well and looked great until it didn’t. I’ve got roller marks, bubbles, drips, orange peel (which is when the paint texture looks like…orange peel). But if I turn off half the lights in the barn it looks fantastic. Even in full sun it will look significantly better than it did last season. One of my big goals was to remove all the old hooks and hardware so the boat is simple and has fewer things on it to break or catch lines.

Like the console, this job involved filling over 100 screw holes in the boat. in the 30+ years this boat has been used, it’s had a lot of different seats, covers, snaps, and equipment installed. My friend Matthew always opines that “sailors sure do like drilling holes in their boats.” I’ve also heard some old salts claim one should only have an odd number of holes in the hull of the boat. This statement makes no sense to me, but in any event the Mako has zero holes in its hull.

It may be dull, but I’ve included a series showing the progression of the repair to the stern. The area had been smashed somehow by the previous owner and the fiberglas was delaminating. I cut it all open (that was scary stuff) and built it back up with a core of hardwood and then lots of fiberglas cloth and fairing compound. I think it came out pretty well.