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September 2005 - Mini-Refit

To our dismay, we discovered during our time away that our bottom paint was not keeping any of the marine growth off the bottom. Having just applied new paint in April, we knew there was a problem. We concluded that it must have been a bad batch of paint, and that sanding everything off, and then re-applying new (and different!) paint seemed the only choice. The paint supplier made us mostly whole on the paint cost, and the marina helped out with reduced haulout charges, but in the end, most of this job was on our own nickel. So once back at MYM, we made arrangements to haul the boat out of the water for the THIRD time this year.

After some discussion with Ilhan Demir, the man (and company) we hired to do most of this fairly ugly job for us, we decided to take everything off (all the old bottom paint layers as well as the underlying barrier coat) down to the original gelcoat. Then we applied 4 coats of GelSheild 200 (an epoxy coating), then 3 coats of anti-fouling paint. The choice of the anti-fouling paint was complex, as we needed something that would last for 18 to 24 months in warm waters (pointing to a soft, ablative paint), yet we needed to be able to scrub it, primarily near the water line, as we expected to be in waters that were dirty and oily (indicating a hard paint). So we combined the two - 6 inches of hard paint at the water line (International Trilux), and everywhere else we put ablative paint (International Micron Extra). The hard waterline paint is blue, so we know where we can scrub, and the other paint is one coat of red Micron first, then 2 coats of black, so we would be able to see when we were getting down to the last layer of protection. Complicated, but worthwhile we felt.

The whole paint job took some 2 weeks, during the hottest weather of the summer. The painting required that the boat be moderately cool, so much of the actual paint work had to be done in the early morning, or under a large white shade we rigged to keep the direct sun off the hull. “Keeping paint cool” During the day when painting wasn’t going on, we did some other land-based jobs, like servicing the sail drives, replacing all the zincs, re-tacking the safety lines strung on the bottom of the hull, replacing our anchor chain, and cleaning the accumulated oil and dirt from just above the water line. It was a busy but rewarding time.

Once the painting was complete, we began the other out of the water job, replacing the trampoline. We had ordered a new one from a Catana-supplier in France earlier in the year, knowing this was in our immediate future. It arrived earlier with friends who sailed from France this summer, and kindly offered to bring it for us. So with some trepidation, we began the process:

Study the old knots, practice them a few times, to ensure we get the whole thing on properly (there are no instructions for it, of course). Realize that the first step in each knot it tying one of the 150 lashings in a very tight bowline to the slug in question. Plan on carpal tunnel surgery after it's over.
Lay the new tramp on top of the old one - noting that the new one, while pre-cut to shape and size for this boat, is a very stretchy material, and in its un-stretched state, only covered about half of the entire space. “Tramp before pulling” Remind ourselves that we knew this.
Cut the old corner and center lashings, and attach the bowlines.
Pull the corners and centers of the tramp (marked by the supplier) as close as possible to the boat corners and centers, and lash loosely. View with dismay that there is a good 10 inches from the tramp edge to the boat edge.
Stop for the day. Consider adding back surgery to the hand surgery plans.
Start again in the early morning, finding that the overnight moisture has freed up the tramp somewhat, and that it stretches much more easily.
Realize that while we can access the sides and aft edges of the trampoline from the deck of the boat, getting at the front edge is going to require scaffolding so lashings can be done from below.
Recognize with delight that the slugs along the front beam can be removed so the bowlines can be done "off-line" - much easier on the body. Temporarily put back surgery on hold.
Cut off all the old knots from the front of trampoline. Accept that we are really without a safety net between the hulls. Remind each other constantly not to walk on the tramp.
Feed newly "bowline'd" slugs back into the front beam, and attach centers loosely.
Start cutting old knots at intervals so new lashings can be attached to slugs, and tramp can be pulled in slowly. “Tramp starts coming in” Add back surgery back into plans.
Finally cut all the old knots, and free the old tramp. Do all the remaining bowlines. Find there is a shortage of 6 lashings, and scurry around to find replacements here in Turkey.
Work our way around the boat 4-5 times, slowly pulling in each lashing, gradually stretching the tramp out to the edges. After a couple of days of this, begin to see light at the end, etc.
Realize that, in some cases, the spots in the tramp that we thought matched the slugs were pulling sideways. Undo the lashing (not the bowline!) and reattach at a place where there was a better pull. Decide we are getting good at it, now that it's coming to an end. At the end, figure out that we did this on probably a third of the lashings.
Decide that the lashings are tight enough, and tie the final double half-hitches and stopper knots in the lashings. This all being done from underneath, while crouching on the scaffolding, realize that knee replacement might also be required.
Borrow (what would one do without friends!) a heavy duty hot knife, and cut the remaining tails from each of the lashings.
Sit back with a large rum punch, and admire it all. Wonder how on earth we thought this could have been possible if we had tried it while in the water.

We went back into the water at the end of the month (September) with gratitude, and the realization that we had actually accomplished quite a lot during the 3 weeks out, and that it had probably been one of our most successful haulouts.