July 19, 2010

During the week I fixed the troublesome stern light socket and fabricated a new black plastic dash panel using a template I had made previously. It would cover up the old holes from switches and instruments that were no longer used and mount a new remote switch for the windlass and a new switch for the steaming light. It would also retain the bilge alarm in it's existing location.

I was up Sunday morning at 5:30 am to hit the road fully loaded by 6:30.

It was pleasantly cool in Napa when I arrived...blessed relief from the 100-degree temperatures in Sacramento. While I waited for the yard chandlery to open, I cleaned up the old bottom paint a bit and masked the waterline. The chandlery ran my first gallon of bottom paint though two cycles on the paint shaker. Back at the boat, I poured about half a gallon into my five-gallon plastic bucket, added some thinner (Naptha) using the S.W.A.G./Eyeball method. The idea was to thin it enough to roll on more smoothly and stretch the coverage a bit without getting it so thin the resulting coating would be less effective and less durable. Because I had never painted Circadian's bottom before, I had to estimate the amount of paint to order. I used the simple calculation recommended by bottom paint manufacturers, but was still a bit anxious about it. At a couple of hundred bucks a gallon, you want to get it right. You don't want to buy more than you need, but it would be a real pain to wind up half a gallon shy. I had bought three gallons, so I figured if I went through no more than a gallon and a half with the first coat, I'd be OK. If I did use more, I'd at least be able to order more before the second coat was scheduled to go on next week. My optimism went up and down as I rolled on the paint. Because of the complex curved asymmetrical surface of the hull, it was tough to project how it was going until I had pretty well finished. In the end, I had used about 1 1/3 gallons, which was about perfect, since I needed to save some paint for later when the boat was in the slings prior to launch in order to paint the places that were now covered by the blocks and jack stands holding up the boat. The paint had also gone on smoothly, so it was a happy result all in all.

By the time I had finished and cleaned up what I had to, it was about 1 pm, and I was more than ready for a lunch break. I was looking forward to juicy burger and big frosty glass of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on the patio at Cuttings Wharf. What a disappointment to find the place jammed. It would take forever to eat there under those conditions, so I reluctantly headed into town for lesser fare. I quickly discovered that the Napa Valley tourist season had hit its peak, and every road and every food stop was jammed. I got a relatively quick lunch at Panda Express and slogged through the traffic on a slow trip back to the yard.

During the couple of hours I had left, I did some more wiring on the stern light fixture and installed the new dash panel. As I expected, one of holes for a new switch did not align perfectly, and so I had to drill out the old panel a bit to get everything to come together. After masking off the edges of the old panel area, I mounted the new panel with black silicone adhesive sealant. I simply ran a bead of silicone around each hole and the back, top and front edges of the new panel and clamped it in place with the bilge alarm. I did not seal the bottom because I wanted any moisture that might eventually find its way in to drain out. The silicone was gooey enough to keep everything in place. I carefully wiped off the excess that oozed out around the masked edges and removed the tape, resulting in a neat clean edge.

I ran out of time and energy at that point, so I cleaned up, buttoned up and hit the road, figuring the traffic would be muy bad. It was, but only until I got away from the Napa tourist jam. Next week: the second coat of bottom paint, and, if there's time, wire up the stern light and new panel switches.