Saturday, May 4, 2013

Wildthing Bottom Paint

WildThing has a few mile under her keel and it was time to give the bottom a new coat of anti-fouling bottom paint.  Brad had reworked the heads and holding tanks and needed to also put in a few new thru-hulls for the new head design. 

There weren't that many places in the Cape Coral/Fort Meyers area to have it done.  The boat weighs 34,000 lbs, draws 6ft and has a 62ft mast so you can't just pull it into any yard.

Brad found the Fort Myers Boat Club not to far from his home in Cape Coral. It was basically a little ways up Caloosahatchee River from the Tarpon Point Marina.  The travel lift and services there worked out great and they were kind enough to park the boat on a concrete section of the yard.

It is always exciting to see the boat come out of the water. You realize just how big they are. It is important to work with the travel lift operator to make sure they know where to lift the boat. The Pan Oceanic's have a Brewer's bite on the back part of the keel.  This is a good placement point for the aft lift strap.

The bottom paint was very thin and completely gone in some areas. A light sanding and some epoxy primer was applied before a couple of coats of bottom paint.

 
 
 




 



 




While the boat was out of the water, it is a good time the replace all your zincs on the rudder, prop and shaft.  There are two copper plates one for SSB and the other for mast grounding.  These were both cleaned and serviced too. Everything else checked out ok, and the boat was put back in the water.

~~~Sail On~~~ /)
Mark