tophatyachts.com

G'day Hatters!,

Dawn Breaker has now been on the beach for about 5 months. Getting a bit of a refit under the water and above. Today was the big day of a paint job.
Please tell me it looks good as I've now spent 4 weekends with 400 wet and dry!!



Pin holes!! I've done heaps of research on painting boats and have learnt that if its not painted don't paint it!!! Gel coat becomes porous and creates pinholes and when there painted they don't go way!! Before the boat came out of the water I dry sanded it with 180 on the orbital sander from the dingy and it looked great. When it came out we thought that we would rub it down with 400 wet and dry and guide coat it. we did this and used shipshape primer and sprayed it and it became pin hole city! So we gave it another guide coat and and rubbed it back trying to keep as much primer as possible and we got out all of them...... until the next coat! Frustrating as all hell!!!
We read the Nor-glass website and even they say its frustrating so it was good to know we weren't the first to struggle so much! So we followed there instructions which i wasn't all that keen on.... a brush and a squeegee!! These holes need to filled but silicon is the enemy! DO NOT POLISH YOUR BOAT WITH A SILICON PRODUCT!!! The Dawn was once a very loved little boat and had the shit polished out of it and non of the paint ges into the holes unless you force it with a brush.
So the next week Dad and I were standing there with a hose and lots of sheets of wet and dry and sanded it 100% flat. Using water to see if it would brake in the pin holes as mentioned in the Nor-glass webite.
So today we headed down there to prep the boat before the paint and I thought i was it with a cloth and water then use wax and grease remover. Well our little friends came back again!!! for some unknown reason. It was pretty heart braking. we did some more reading and came to the conclusion that single pack enamel was the go and not the two pack as the enamal bridges the pinholes but has half the life span of two pack so we relised we were loosing a up hill battle. so we sprayed the enamel and got a very good result and only had a few pinholes.
Next weekend hoping to fit the rudder, paint a gun metal grey boot strap, install the bilge pump again and put her name on the transom and hopfully the weekend after put a few more coats of antifoul on and have her floating again!

Moral of the story- There old boats, they are what they are and two packs to hard! Just go sailing instead of rubbing! AND DON'T USE SILICON BASED POLISH!!

Cheers,

Dawn Breaker

Aaron,

That also applies where you have to do fiberglass repairs.

If silicone has been used you will never get a fair edge to the new fiberglass.

Well done on the paint job though, well worth the effort!

Hello Aaron,
Yes ,she looks fantastic and what you say is true .My Dad was talking about having his Swanson 38 sprayed ,about $6000 to do professionally.Now the advice he was given by the spray painter was it would be cheaper to have her washed and wet and dried back and polished .This should last 18 months with just then a normal polish . Where the respray would only last 5 to 6 years before it would need to be done again .
Egret ll gelcoat is 40 years old, and all I do is buff and polish and it still buffs up ok .But ! I'am going to paint the cockpit out as it is nearly back to bare glass.

Cheers Bear

Hi Aaron, it certainly is heartbreaking when you put in so much work to do a quality job and then you look closely and . . . ., aaghh!

In the end you got there and ya boat will look so sweet once she is back on the water that I am sure you will be pleased with her.

all the best with the rest of the job

Louis
Troppo

Aaron,

I refuse to comment as I have not been invited on board to see in person.
No oohhh ahhhhhh from internet pictures allowed.
Only in real life experiences.
Diana

Sea Lady


P.S.
The bloke who sold you the boast wants piccies.
pps.
My Shipwright who did all the work on Sea Lady told me to watch out for the old blokes and the young ones.
Hmmm
Whose Top Hat is the prettiest of them all?

Well ..... we have a problem as we will all vote for our own.... at least I will...... so the activity is moot.

Just reread your post.

I painted the deck of Sea Lady a few years ago with one pack. Myself.
And my Shipwright read me the riot act.

It can be very difficult to grind back but it buffs up beautifully and looks stunning.
Also super easy to patch up any scrapes.

I have been using Jif on any black rubber shoe marks or similar.

Even my shipwright is a convert of one pack. International Toplac.

SeaLady has this inside and out - the deck Toplac non slip paint lies!!!!!

The non slip is still slippery.
We sprinkled raw sugar on the wet paint where we wanted it rougher.
Then hosed it off later.
Do not use non slip paint nor the non slip granules.
All they do is grab the dirt and make it almost impossible to clean and it is still as slippery as wet glass.
If you find you want non skip on the gloss sections - glue non slip strips like are on stairs.
Wait till the paint / varnish is completely cured before applying.

My hull is polished and has a silicon based wipe / polish to assist in keeping the growth and dirt away.
Works a treat.
Reapply every 6 months or so.

The most important things I learned with SeaLady are:

1. Pay someone who knows what they are doing to do the work.
2. Avoid using silicon anything.
3. NEVER put a rag soaked in turps in a pocket where sensitive skin lurks underneath. Ouch!!!!!!!

All 3 points learned the hard way.

I have heard that Toplac is a fantastic paint. I have used mostly Botecote Aquacote inside Windchaser, 2 pk water based, takes a bit of care to get a nice finish but easy to use.

I'll have to try the sugar trick to make non slip.

Di, you mention you use silicon wipes on the hull but then your point 2 is avoid using silicon anything. Are silicon wipes different to silicon everything?

cheers

Louis
Troppo

G'day Hatters,

Thanks for all the advice, I treasure all the advice I can get.
Diana thanks for the tip I think we've all done similar things. Turps, acetone, resin the list goes on!
Think the worse one was having about 600ml of resin mixed up on the galley bench while I was glassing the bulkhead and not wearing a shirt and having it on my back and in my hair as the boat got hit by a wave. I think we all learn these lessons once.

This morning was the final coat and I'm just so stoked!!!



Just thought id show you guys the rudder as well. I had photos of the the before but I had them on my phone but it turns out it doesn't float
The original shaft came down about 350mm with two tags about 250mm welded onto the shaft. One weld was completley gone and the other wasnt to far off either. The acutal shaft was pitted as well and i recon it didnt have to much time left in it.
The new one is a much better design and thanks to my dads work stainless isnt a problem at all, weather its finding it, welding it or bending it
We bend the shaft to the shaft it self is a tag and then welded another one. It also got countless amounts of glass. I glassed it up again and bogged it and you'd never know it was once in to halves.



Ill put an update up when shes back into the water which fingers crossed will be in 2 weeks

Cheers,
Dawn Breaker

Wow, doing the rudder is a big job, well done. I did mine about a year ago and the fairing took me ages.

G'day Hatters,

Well she floats again!! and looking new again!!
Dawn Breaker went back in after many months a few weeks ago (sorry i didn't post them earlier, I've been busy at work).









Sorry the photos are squashed I'm not to sure how to fix that.
So stoked to have a boat back!
Hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year and hope to catch you guys on the water.

Merry Christmas,

Dawn Breaker