Photos:
The sail loft where our new sails are being made - Supreme Sails - Peter and his crew.
Felix takes out the old prop.
We do feed our guests you know! Lizzy and Ross - we love them!
Lots of work and progress shots.
We hoist the NZ Flag!
Matelot now has a navy hull and a white and soft grey stripe down the side. She is looking pretty good we think.
Funny things we have done? Sitting on the bus to Porto Roz eating the pureed fruit out of a couple of baby-food jars so we could use the jars to get some free gel coat for touch ups from a contact we have! The baby food was good! We think we will stock up on it for ice cream topping...
Great moments! We hoist the NZ flag and sing the NZ National Anthem!
People we must honour: Lizzie and Ross for their wonderful help and support. Felix for being a constant source of amusement, confusion and motivation.
It is hardly surprising that we are starting to feel like locals in this lovely place! We can now direct people to 4 different suppliers of antifoul and various painters tools and accessories. We know where all the good coffee is and have the nearest ice cream stalls well staked out. Our marine engineer and font of all knowledge, "Felix" ducks for cover when he sees us coming, but is quite happy to loan us his car, tools and certainly some extra paint if we run out.
Actually for Euro 29 a day where else could you have a 4 bedroom pad right on the water with a 360 degree view of the Med and the old town, plus a cool breeze on these hot sunny days thrown in!
Seriously though, we have been working our butts off and here are some photos to prove it. There are moments when we have been on the verge of total collapse, but our wonderful friends Lizzie McFadden and her partner Ross have come charging to our rescue and have been helping us with painting, cooking meals, drinking cold beer and wine, and more ....painting.
But to go back to the beginning of all this, we can surely blame Felix. We have wisely consulted with him on everything and so when we were looking at the hull in its sad state, we asked his opinion. "Just sand it very lightly - not more than one hour or one day - then paint it with 2 coats antifoul and go...." "However, I must advise you that this boat has a leetle problem. It has been primed and antifouled as a new boat without being sanded properly. See - you can see little patches of gel coat everywhere. You may get a couple more years out of it, but it will have to be taken right back to the gel coat eventually and redone." With this comment he jumps on his bicycle and cycles away at the 100 miles an hour which he travels throughout the marina.
So, Richard and I decide we will sand the patches back and prime and antifoul them. However once we start we uncover great patches of hull which is not holding the paint well. Before we know it we have it cleaned right back to the gel coat from the bow back to the mast. We rub our blue hands together in glee saying to each other "OK that is the worst of it and now we prime and paint." Uh oh... Felix is back, takes one look. "You have taken off more than 20% and now you must take it all off!... all of it.. yes... all of it"
This is a very difficult moment for us. We are blue and filthy from head to toe. Our fingernails are permanently grimy and we are so tired! Gradually we accept the reality of the task ahead of us. It is around this time that our sailmaker calls by one day and sees the pathetic little scraper we are using and organises the loan of a heavy duty scraper for Richard from one of the boat lift drivers. This accelerates our progress astronomically. Richard scrapes and I sand and we break it down into small goals and things are a bit of a blurr until voila!... The morning after Lizzie and Ross arrive, we knock it over and are ready for the epoxy primer treatment. 5 coats of epoxy primer later and 4 coats of antifoul and we think we are ready to go back in the water.
Felix arrives with his osmosis testing meter and goes over the hull.... "She is perfect... she will last you for the next 40 years, no problem!" (We know this already from the survey but there is not much we can outdo Felix on!)
We could not get the colours we wanted in the antifoul, but we have had lots of people stop by who have been watching us work, and say what a great job we have done. A couple of days ago a boat was put nearby us for sanding and antifouling and the boss brought his workman over to our boat and told him this was how he wanted it done.
Today I have ordered an Adriatic Pilot book from Amazon.com and will pick it up in Trieste. We will need it for our first passage... Izola to Venice!!! YES!!!! We will blog again when we have some real news, like... we are on the water and going places.
3 comments:
I am very impressed! You deserve to have the God's on your side. Sail well and enjoy Matelot!!
Have been imagining you two sanding and scraping away. How beautiful Matelot looks and how happy the owners, Capn Buck and Pippy. Time to get some sailing time!
Buck and Pippy, Zdravo. Congratulations on a job well done! I note with interest that you have a 3 bladed prop. I have no doubt you will like us find it fantastic particularly getting in and out of a berth. I have been down at Westhaven this morning as we are getting the main windows on Matrix replaced by toughened glass rather than the existing perspex which were starting to craze and leak. We are having the antifouling and topsides polish carried out this year at Opua by Robert Aukett who painted the America's Cup boats for Peter Blake. We would have loved to have painted Matrix blue like Matelot but is impossible as you know with Auckland's ultra violet rays of the sun. We are delighted that you have succeeded in getting the work you wanted done (including new sails) in the height of the season. Not easy in Auckland even in the middle of winter. On Saturday a storm came through blowing over 70 knots. We were glad not to be at sea! Nasvidenje for now from us both. Noel and Kerrin
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