Category Archives: Boat Details

Beastly Boat Projects: Part I

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There are so many things we do on the boat that are so very dreadful and darn right beastly!  Lucky for us, we are on the hard at Norsand and can employ their team to more effeciently conquer some of these boat projects for us.

Living on the Hard

Many cruisers rent an apartment when their boat is on the hard because frankly it is irritating to be on the hard while living onboard.  Why do you ask?  Well, first, we have no running water.  Which means no sinks, toilets, or showers.  Lucky for us we are fairly close to the bathrooms but still, in the middle of the night, I have to layer the warm clothing (as it get’s down to 11c), go outside, climb down my stairs, walk to the bathroom, and return.  Then I am wide awake for hours.  Brushing your teeth, or washing your hands, or doing the dishes take on a totally different meaning when you have to carry them downstairs, outside, and to the public sinks.

Now, let me shine some light on my craziness.  Yes, the above is true.  However, I only have to go down 5 steps where my neighbor has to go down 18 steps!  I have no right to complain.

Saildrive Maintenance and Repair

The boat projects begin.  We engaged Whangarei Marine (also known as Ray Roberts) to help us do some general maintenance on our saildrives.  I scheduled them for the day after we were hauled out but I did not expect to still be on the trailer when they arrived.  They made the best of it.  Taylor and Damon showed up and expertly removed the props, zincs, and drained the oil.

Then they had to move our engine forward in order to pull the saildrive out.  Only to have to repeat the process on the other side.

Plans Always Change…

We originally started out with replacing the bellows, clamping rings, and seal kits.  Then after we removed the saildrives we noticed our damper plates were a little worse for the wear (still functional, but new would be better).  Unfortunately, Volvo no longer sells parts for our 23 year old engines and there were no second hand damper plates.  So, we added a spacer to get more time out of the splines.  Matt thinks we added 4-5 years before we might need to think about repowering the boat (new engines and saildrives).  Gesh, this was a super expensive boat project!

Once the saildrives are installed we have to wait for the coppercoat to be applied before we install the boot that goes around the sail drive.  The rubber piece is glued with 5200 then Matt installs the fiberglass with screws.  We decided to cover these small pieces with an anti-foul wrap instead of our coppercoat.  This is a relatively new technology. It literally is a wrap that is meant to protect the bottom of your boat.

Top left shows the bare hull with the rubber boot down toward the bottom hanging losely.  The rubber boot is glued on first.  Then we glued (5200) the fiberglass boot (upper right photo) which has the new antifoul wrap on.  Once the fiberglass is set, the wrap company came back and added the plack paint around the edges and frankly made a huge mess of the entire project.  But it is on the bottom of the boat so we are letting it go.

An Experiment

Not a boat project, but a fun experiement.  In one area we have coppercoat (on the hull), prop speed (saildrives and props), Vivid barrier antifoul paint (rudder casing) and a new antifoul vinyl wrap (on the sail drive boots).  We are testing to see which of the 4 antifoul uses do better.  We both are betting on the antifoul vinyl wrap being the first to go.

Circle (upper left pic) is Vivid antifoul paint.  Lower right pic is the antifoul vinyl wrap.  Upper right shows you the coppercoat (antifoul on the hulls), vinyl wrap (black on the sail drive boot) and coppercoat on the saildrive and props.

Caulking the Deck and Beyond

There is a sealent that runs along the deck and the hull all around the entire boat.  It was looking super ratty and some areas had small leaks.  We tried to get a small area repaired in Raitea but they did not do a really great job so we decided to replace the entire thing all around the boat.  This is one of the boat projects we did not want to conquer on our own.

Josh is assigned to this lovely, dirty boat project.  First he has to carefully dig the old sealent out between the wood toe rail and the deck.  You can see it looks clumpy in some areas which is not only ugly but uneffective.  This has been a boat project we wanted to tackle for some time, but never had the time and dry weather for long enough to do it.

This is an area where he picked out the old sealent and then in the lower photo replaced it with fresh product.

Here is another area that was bad, it is the port sugar scoop by our swim ladder.

A Busy Caulker

Since we have such a talented “caulker” we asked Josh to seal several other areas:

  • Starboard large window (Int/Ext) / hatch that had a small leak
  • Starboard & Port helm seats and helm stations
  • Both davits at the boat attachment point
  • Forward and aft bimini poles (above the cockpit)
  • Inside around the new ceiling panels we installed last season in each of the 3 cabins, both heads, and salon.
  • Around the entire bimini rail, all four sides
  • Let’s just say that we “caulked” the majority of the boat inside and out

I am not sure Josh wants to do more caulking boat projects from us again, but it was great fun having him around for most of our time in Norsand!

Teak Bimini Rail

The teak bimini rail was falling off.  I am sure part of the reason it came loose was because it is old, but also because Matt steps on it when he works on the sail.  In order to properly repair it we had to completely remove it (carefully so it doesn’t break).  The rail is attached to the bimini which is made of honeycomb (strong and light).  Because the wood is old and fragile, Matt decides to take on this boat project by removing it himself.  Now the yard can fill and prepare the board to be re-installed.  Please note that our bimini rail did not look like the photos below. I failed to take a before photo of the wood so you get a middle photo of half of it torn out. 

Matt and Ben tackled the honeycomb part of this boat project.  Matt cleaned it out and prepared it for filling and then Ben filled it with sealant. We wanted to fill it to ensure the wood would hold more securly.  While the boys were working on the bimini, I worked on the wood. The end product looks amazing!

Bathroom Ceiling

This should be the last ceiling job that we do for a long time!  The master bathroom had 5 panels that were made of fiberglass and covered in paint.  The problem was the humidity over the years caused the paint to chip and it looked horrible.  The only way to properly repair the panels was to remove them, sand and repaint them.   The problem with this boat project was that they were solidly in place, glued with 5200 and tons of caulking.  It was beastly!

Of course, once you remove the panels you have to remove all of the awful glue, silicone, and residue — making this a truly beastly boat project.  We bring a day laborer, Kenan to help me for one day and I finish up on day 2.  Smooth as a baby’s butt!

Josh installed the new ceiling panels with VHB tape and then spent a few days caulking around every single panel!

Once he was done the master head looked spectacular!  I am so happy with the repaired ceiling.

Boat Projects To Be Continued…

We had so many beastly boat projects that it requires 2 blog posts!  So stay tuned for our next post as we install new heaters and a new 220v inverter/charger, we install new anchor markers and clean up our 100m of stainless steel chain, varnish tons of teak and install new mirrors.

What the cockpit looks like during project mode….ugh!

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occured during  7 Nov. – 22 Dec.  We repair several gel coat areas in our last blog – did you catch it?

Gel Coat Repairs

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Inevitably accidents happen, parts break, and things need repair.  Over the years we have had a few areas in our gel coat that have been in need of repair.  We have tried to color match our 23 year old “white” gel coat before and have had a really difficult time.  It might be time for a wrap or a full paint job, but it is not in the cards this time around.  The cost is astronomical for both.  

So the next best thing is to try to color match again and see if we make these gel coat spot repairs be less noticeable.  

Gel coat repairs

Over the years we have had to do some minor gel coat repairs.  Some  were on the boat before we bought her and some happened during our ownership.   Below you will see a rather large rectangle which was repaired in Raiatea.  The two spots after the rectangle are just light marks from our fenders and they easily buff out.  The other areas color matched at first, but as the sun hits the new gel coat it colors differently than the old gel coat.    So, we are going to have Norsand boat yard try to blend these for us and do a few other gel coat repairs.

Conor from the yard does a light sanding, tapes off the surrounding areas, matches the color and applies the paint.  And looky looky it is beautiful.  Let’s see how it looks in 6 months though.  Typically the sun and UV bake the gel coat and changes its colors so even though they match now they might not match in 6-8 months.

The starboard bow had a light crack that needed repair (a catamaran drifted into our two bows while we were at anchor).  The crack was repaired but evidently, not well.  So, we repair it again.  I must say it is freaky to see them drill into the crack, making it bigger, only to fill it properly.

Some Glassing along with Gel Coat Work

The aft bulk heads on both the port and starboard side needed some care.   Starboard had a small hairline crack on the front side and port had a small hairline crack on both the front and aft.  So, Ben comes in, drills them out, fills and sands them (a few times) and applies several layers of thick fiberglass.  Now we just need a quick layer of paint and they will be good to go.

Another cruisers came to visit us and accidentally scraped a line down our starboard hull with his kayak.  Lovely.  Is this a boaters version of a key mark?

We have some areas in the cockpit that needed love.  The hatch under the table that lifts becomes unstable each time we lift it.  It causes the gel coat to crack around the hatch.

On both sugar scoops we have large cleats that have cracks below and around them.  We remove the cleats, drill out the cracks, fill, sand, fill, sand, and apply fresh gel coat.

Shine like a Diamond

After all of the gel coat repairs have been completed we move on to the wash, polish and wax.  This is when progress is really obvious and the hull gets a mirror finish.

Lots of polishing, then waxing to make our girl shine.

All of the above repairs were handled by the professional crew at Norsand Boat yard during our haul out in November 2023.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind live events.  Super depressing outcome with our brand new Coppercoat bottom paint – check it out.

A Coppercoat Failure?

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This is such a difficult blog for me to write.  As you know, we spent a lot of money and time applying Coppercoat antifoul (see Coppercoat blog posts part I and part II) to our boat.  We had very high expectations that this product would last a very long time, save us money, and prevent us from hauling out every other year.  Maybe that was the problem?  Our expectations were too high?

The Prologue

We splashed from Norsand Boatyard and went up river to a marina. We stayed at the dock for 5 weeks and when we left, we had no concerns regarding the bottom job.  Why do you ask?

Last season we stayed in the same river for 8 months.  We had lots and lots of soft growth on our Carboline ablative paint.  I mean it looked like a small forest.  However, it easily fell off as soon as the boat started moving.  In fact, we sailed to Great Barrier (35-40nm) and by the time we got there the bottom had no growth!  Cool!

The Difference Between Seasons

As you might recall, last season 2023, had a lot of rain!  It rained at least 4 days a week if not more during the 8 months we were there!  Since we were on a river, the rain would fill the mountains and waterfalls which would push a lot of fresh, cold water down our river.  

However, this season we had very little rain and hot days.  Making the brackish water very warm and stagnant. Evidently this is a breeding ground for barnacles.

The Problem

Matt jumped in the water once we got to our first anchorage. He was completely shocked as our bottom was covered in barnacles.  This just 5 weeks after splashing into the water with fresh Coppercoat.

The barnacles were everywhere on the Coppercoat, on the hulls, on the stern, the bow, the very bottom and the daggerboards.  It was crushing!

Our Experiment

As you might recall, we did a little experiment.  We placed 4 different products on the bottom of our boat to see which would perform better over time.

As a note, Coppercoat cannot be near aluminum so we had to put a different product around the rudder shaft and the sail drive.

  1. Coppercoat on the entire hull
  2. Propspeed on the props.  This product can only go on the props, not on the hulls
  3. Vivid antifoul bottom paint near the rudder shaft (black circle)
  4. Vinyl Antifoul wrap near the sail drive (black square)

What was the outcome after the first 5 weeks?

The yellow propspeed had zero growth.  No soft or hard growth.  It was super clean!

The Vinyl antifoul, which we applied as sort of a joke, as we thought this would be the first to disintegrate or fall apart.  But this only had some soft growth which fell off with a light touch of your finger.

Vivid antifoul paint was covered in barnacles. 

And the Coppercoat was covered.

What Did we Do?

For those of you who know me this will come as no surprise.  I sent videos and photos to the marina (just to give them a heads up), to the yard (again a heads up and sought advice), and to the manufacturer of Coppercoat.

There are 5-6 marinas on this same river.  We know of several boats, that stayed at various marinas on this river that had similar problems. Some had antifoul paint and some Coppercoat – all the same results with tons of barnacles.

After a lot of back and forth, the manufacturer did nothing other than provide some insights.  I thought I’d share them here with the hopes that it would be helpful for other cruisers who have Coppercoat.

Insights

Assuming the Coppercoat was applied correctly, which we believe it was (again refer to our Coppercoat blog posts part I and part II)  and compare the application process to that which is recommended by Coppercoat).  

  • Standard antifoul paint starts off at full strength (containing the maximum biocide content when new) and gradually wears down (it grows weaker as the biocides leach away). Making is less effective the older it becomes (which we have seen first hand).  
  • Coppercoat when freshly applied is a relatively mild antifoul. It becomes stronger week by week.   Commonly, a two-year old treatment performs better than a two-week old treatment. This is because it takes time for the epoxy at the outer surface of the treatment to break down and allow the release of the copper.  This would have been good to know BEFORE we applied the Coppercoat as we may have changed our plans after launch.
  • Pure copper itself is relatively mild antifoul agent. It is actually the by-product of the copper oxidization process that have the stronger qualities.  Cuprous oxide is a far more powerful antifoul than pure copper.  It is the double effect of the resin degrading (to allow the exposure and release of the copper) itself oxidizing, that combine to provide a highly efficient antifoul.  And this process takes time.

Although we are very confident in the correct application process done by the yard, I failed to note what grade of sandpaper was used on the last burnishing.  I just noted in our blog that they sanded which is what they need to do to activate the Coppercoat. I wish I would have checked the grade.  However, I find it a ridiculous notion that they yard, who has been applying  Coppercoat for 10 years would have used the incorrect grade after all the time and effort it took to get to the final stage.  If they used a course or low grade sandpaper (something below 300 grade), which we truly believe the did not, it could have added to the problem (not been the cause of the problem, but added to it).

Bad Timing?

So does this all add up to just bad timing?  Our resin did not have a chance to degrade so the copper did not oxidize which allowed the barnacles a free hold on our bottom.

And it appears our boat was launched during a particularly high fouling time in a high fouling area.

We are aware of several other boats that stayed at different marinas along the same river and they too had a seriously bad barnacle problem.  In fact, one boat had Coppercoat that was applied a year ago, another had Coppercoat applied 5 months ago, and one had ablative bottom paint. All were covered in barnacles.  So, it was not just our marina, but perhaps the river, the warm water temperature, and bad timing?

The Solution

We immediately started cleaning the bottom of the boat with a metal scraper (while she is still in the water).  It took us 4 days and several turns with the hooka (diving apparatus) to remove all of the barnacles.  Again, this just breaks my heart!  We had such high hopes!  The reason it took us several days was because the water temps are really cold (20-21C) 69-70F degrees.  So, even with a wet suit we could not stay in the water more than 1.5-2hours at a time.

We unfortunately did not have the opportunity to haul the boat out immediately after discovery so we did the best we could with cleaning her while she was in the water.  You can see where we cleaned the top part in this photo.

We started with the metal scraper then followed it up with a scotch bright (mild) pad to get any remaining soft growth off the hull.

All in all it took us a total of 9 hours to clean the boat.  That’s 9 hours in 21c (69F) water which is really damn cold even in our wetsuits!

The good news is that 90% of the barnacles came off relatively easy with the metal scrape.  About 10% required more attention to get their white base off.  It was really difficult to get them off the freezer plates, SSB plates and around the dagger board casing.

Manufacturer Solution:

  • A thorough cleaning should be done immediately (and was).
  • The preferred method would be to haul the boat out and pressure wash it.  Then use a metal scraper (the type to decorate or remove old wall paper) to scrape off any remaining barnacles.  A fine grade of wet-and-dry paper (320 grade) should then be used.
    • The purpose of the sand paper is to remove the thinnest layer of epoxy at the surface to expose the copper held within. The exposed copper with then oxidize more readily when the boat is re-launched
  • Using course sandpaper will simply scratch the surface and provide a physical key for marine life to try to cling to. Only use mild grade paper or a burnishing pad.
  • It is important to do this quickly, before the growth becomes worse and attaches more firmly, as that will only make the cleaning more difficult.

After more back and forth, Aquarius Marine (Coppercoat UK), HullWell, and Norsand agreed to cover the cost to remove any remaining barnacles, and fully machine burnish the bottom at our next haul out.  We will be responsible for the cost to haul the boat and pressure wash it.  We will schedule to haul the boat out at the end of April as close to our departure date as possible – with the hopes of leaving NZ with a clean hull.

Still Hopeful

Matt and I are NOT giving up hope on Coppercoat.  We are hopeful that we were just at the wrong place at the wrong time with very young Coppercoat that was not ready for an onslaught of barnacles. So, I would say “not an overall failure but a complete and total disappointment.”

We will keep you posted on our experiment.  Feel free to contact us with any questions.

Our blog posts usually run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events, but I wanted this post to go out fairly close to the other two Coppercoat posts.  We discovered the barnacles around the end of January.  We are in a sticky situation in our last blog – did you read why?