Yesterday the propshaft, dripless coupler and transmission coupler all got installed. This whole system has been a worrisome thing since before we got here; its really nice to have it done. The second coat of primer on the topsides was sprayed on. The first three steps going up the top half of the mizzen mast got installed. I managed to get the forward bilge emptied out and cleaned – much salt, soap and grit got removed. All totaled, yesterday was a very good day.
Final prep for the second coat of primer
Most of that 2nd coat of “pasta” got sanded off, but the result is a much smoother hull
The primer is sprayed on
Mixing paint in the chemistry lab.
The first swipe of primer goes on.
Around the stern and onto the port side.
So, after the first coat of primer, they sanded again and started filling the dings they could now see with a uniform color background. This is a much thinner pasta than the green stuff used earlier. They only got about a quarter of that done. So there will be more pasta and sanding and ?painting? tomorrow.
The new dripless coupler is much better constructed than the old, by the way! The plastic part attached to the prop shaft is much beefier and is double hose clamped! Both the old and the new are the same brand, just purchased many years apart.
The old dripless coupling, showing the wear on both the stainless steel and the teflon faces.
This is the new part that attaches to the shaft. Note the double hose clamps (both held into deep grooves so that they can’t slip off).
The whole hull (topsides) have been sanded smooth, but (since I didn’t get back before all the workers had left) I don’t know if they’ve gone as far as using the #400 sandpaper; Miguel had bought 4 different grits for them to work thru, finishing with the #400 wet. When I was there this morning there were 4 guys sanding. The “attached” part of the dripless shaft coupler is now installed (so it appears), but the rest remains to do.
The top-sides are all splotched with the green “pasta”.
Chicos hard at work sanding!
A few of the deeper spots are still green, the rest is smoooooth
The prop looks great.
There has been plenty of progress on the hull work for the underwater part. The grinding and sanding is all done. The thru-hull and transducer have been replaced; the hole for the oldest of the transducers is fiberglassed closed; the bolts in the support brackets have been checked (and one replaced) and re-sealed. Some blisters were found (less than 10) and patched – this was “not supposed” to happen since we had the whole outer layer of glass replaced in San Carlos, Mexico six years ago, but 10 blisters is better than 1000. The prop shaft is removed and the coupler, shaft and prop are off to the shop for checking, adjusting and aligning. The prop is showing serious signs of electrolysis “burn”; since we are quite reliable about keeping fresh zinc anodes on the prop shaft, I’m not quite sure how that happened. I suspect either the estero at Bahia del Sol in El Salvador, or (less likely) the estero at Bahia Caraquez in Ecuador.
The setback yesterday was the discovery of lots of gelcoat deterioration just above the waterline, especially at the bow where there had been “gunk” growing and more especially at the stern. So the plan is to prep all that (and other dings as well – a couple fairly large ones) with a special “pasta”, sand smooth again, and then apply two layers of primer to the top-sides before putting on the final coats of yellow.
different stages of grinding and sanding on the two sides of the hull
First (of two) coats of barrier coat applied
First (of two) coats of primer being applied
