Boring and Laborious

Its going to be one hell of a boring and laborious weekend this weekend. We have put aside this weekend for scraping off the remaining antifoul paint. Great job!

There is no easy way to do this. It is just hard graft, elbow grease and a pull scraper. 

Thankfully there isnt actually that much paint on Naughty-Cal's hull. The antifoul paint we have used for the last five years wears really quite well leaving just a fine layer which scrapes off easily enough. It is the layer beneath and the existing primer which are a pain to remove. 

Hopefully we should have the paint removed by the end of this weekend and by next weekend it will be back to the nice jobs of polishing, waxing and applying fresh, new antifoul paint. I always like that part of the job as Naughty-Cal starts to glimmer and gleam in the spring sunshine and starts to regain her fresh look again ready for a new year of cruising.

Thankfully you dont have to scrape the antifoul back very often. If we didnt have a couple of minor repairs to do to the hull this time we wouldnt have needed to scrape the paint back. Hopefully after this years mammoth spruce up we wont have to scrape the paint back for another ten years at least. We will still have to lift her of course for her annual stern gear service and polish and to apply a fresh layer of paint but by putting in the hard work now we are saving ourselves work in the coming years. It all pays off in the end.

We have a few other minor odd jobs to finish as well. The drive needs filling with fresh oil, it was drained last week but we didnt have enough oil to refill it as someone (no names mentioned here!!) forgot to bring the extra oil, and the refurbished props are ready to fit. With the drive filled with oil and prop and anodes refitted the drive can be masked up and painted with its first coat of antifoul paint. We also have a few bits in the cockpit to tidy up and some new bulbs for the dashboard instruments.

After this weekend we should really be on the home stretch with more jobs crossed of the now decreasing list of things to do. It will be a weekend of hard work but it will be worth it in the end. The end goal to have Naughty-Cal ready and raring to go for her first trip of the year to Kings Lynn at Easter.