On Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:02:53 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

Hi, Wayne, and list,

"Wayne B" wrote in message
.. .

I have done a couple of major bottom and fairing jobs but your's
definitely wins some sort of award. You must be darn sick of looking
at it by now. You really need to take your time with the barrier
coating and get it right so you'll never have to go through all of
that again.


The next step is the "mass" application of AdTech epoxy fairing in strips -
~15" - with open strips in between. Those open strips will be the initial
riding surfaces for the longboard. Once sanded, the strips, on cure, will
be the riding surface for the open spaces' application of the same.

That will be followed by application of a very dilute solution of Dykem, a
machinists' dye, followed by another sanding (this time to take off the dye
in the high spots, so no effort, particularly), fill in the low spots,
rinse, repeat until you can't see any.

Rather then dykem a great many people use paint in a spray can. A
light almost mist coat is all required.

The yard here doesn't do any protection of jack stand tops, nor their slings
(using WAXED PAPER!!) during lifting, so I'll be buying some very heavy
plastic sheeting to wrap those (tops, and, later, on lifting, their slings -
which have already gouged our hull more than once in the course of moving us
to a different location and then hanging us so we could get under the keel),
so that when I have to move the stands to fill in the holes, I won't be
damaging the surface any more than absolutely necessary. As it is now,
every move of the jack stands leaves residue from the tops...

Aren't you using spreaders for the slings? Or by "gouged" do you mean
scrapped?

Then, each coat of the barrier coat (recoatability up to 90 days without
sanding) will show up places which aren't perfect, by eye, as they'll be
shiny by comparison to the dull epoxy fairing. Vinylester patching in those
spots, another coat of barrier, rinse, repeat, until you can't see any
dings. ETA 30 or more mils.

That can have bottom paint applied without sanding when it's "tacky" -
which, by their definition, is when you push your finger on it and it leaves
a fingerprint but doesn't stick to you. I need to contact the vendor to see
how long a window that likely delivers!

If Vinylester is anything like epoxy you have plenty of time, in fact
the opposite is true of epoxy. You sit and sit for what seems like
hours before it starts getting tacky and then usually on the first
attempt you start before it is hardened sufficiently and it wrinkles.
Regardless of what the vendor tells you it is a good idea to do a test
patch as it is rather tear provoking to have the whole side of the
boat start to craze.

And, yes, I'm mightily sick of looking at it - but we have had myriad folks
come up to us and say how good it looks. Whether they're well enough
informed to have those represent "valid" opinions or not I can't say, but
the guy who's been there, done that, on the boat still on the hard here has
assured us that we're doing a stellar job of it.

Interestingly, there's a guy who came by, now months ago, asking for work,
with what seemed like impeccable credentials (same guy above who has been
there, done that on his boat described him as immensely overqualified for
the job at hand), has shown us that we're doing our work far better than he
would have, based on the huge boat he's been on ever since. On that boat,
he's had to do just about everything we've encountered, but walking by it on
the way to the showers every night during his tenure on it showed us that
we've been paying incredibly more attention to detail than he, and doing
each step better, to boot. With any luck, we'll not have to do the level of
recovery in the touch up phase which he's had to do.

The question then arises whether you are "gilding the lily" as it
were. However beauty is in the eye of the beholder so do it to satisfy
yourself.

Thanks for the comments. It's pouring right now, so we're not going to be
laying on the strips. Key to (very easy, according to the BTDT guy above)
fairing those out with the longboard is to catch it while it's green (4-6
hours after application), so we'll not put any on any later than 10AM on any
given day, as doing it a day later is punitively hard manual labor - even
using a DA/RO commercial sander - when it's nearly fully cured. Sanding
(longboard) in the rain is ok, but applying to a wet surface, nor even
making it up where it might collect some water, isn't...

Question. If you are using an epoxy filler and sanding it before it
hardens doesn't your sandpaper clog up rather rapidly?

L8R

Skip and crew
Cheers,

Bruce