By the time I finally made it back to the marina on Saturday, the Williams Marine crew were already well under way sanding smooth all the barnacles and wet sanding the hull to a clean slick shine. When the entire surface was smooth from growth and barnacles John and Mathew Williams took a break to let the hull dry and went to mix the bottom paint. It's an ablative paint designed to 'sluff off' and wear so that it hinders growth of things onto the hull. About once a month you can take a brush and rub over the surface and the paint sort of dissolves releasing any growth.
With both Williams on painting detail it only took a couple of hours to get all the surface painted. I asked John how long it would be before it needed painting again... he said, "about 12 to 13 months." I asked if more coats of paint would help it last longer? "Not really. it'll just cost you more paint and labor dollars but still wont last another year." *OTHER SAILORS: WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE? I asked John if there was anything I could do to help? "Yes, stay out of the way." So I did.
Tommorrow they are going to check all the through hulls while its out of the water. confirm there aren't any needing to be replaced. (better to fix a hole in the boat while it's not in the water!)
Next step is to schedule a splash time with the marina once we know when Prodigal is ready to launch. (probably Tues or Wed morning at high tide) At high tide I can just motor back the half mile to my marina and tie her up Easy Peasy. (yeah, right)
I was told routine maintenance is about 10% of your purchase price each year. All I can say is, Ouch! We need a smaller boat...
-Poor Pirate Skip
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