Status report: On the hard, in the heat

My friend Major and I hauled Ms. Bettencourt on her trailer early Tuesday. She is now tucked under the shed at the Augusta Ports Authority. Surface preparation and paintwork have begun. It is slow going because of the climate. Temps were in the 90s before noon yesterday, and nearing 100 by mid-afternoon. Humidity makes it much worse. Augusta is the only place I know where you can boil and bake at the same time.

I work in short bursts, mostly governed by the position of the sun. The boat and trailer are parked on a north-south axis. I did surface prep and masking on the east (port) side of the boat very early this morning, then moved to the shady (starboard) side for another hour with the scraper and tape. By noon it was too hot to work.

I will be back on the east side with primer, shortly after sunrise tomorrow, then to the other side, and so on. I expect this solar pirouette will persist through two coats of primer with sandings in between, then two topcoats of epoxy enamel, also sanded between coats. Painting has to take place very early mornings when the surfaces to be painted have cooled enough overnight to be within temperature specs for the paint.

Most fortunately, I am not coating the whole vessel. I want to get the underside of the hardtop and the hardtop’s new fir supporting structure primed and painted, and a couple of coats of BilgeKote on the inside of the pilot house. This should be doable, even at my weather constrained rate, in a week or so.

By the way, hauling the boat was not without a little drama. Major, who was at the ramp with the truck and trailer as I motored the Albin upriver, called me on the VHF to report a man in trouble near the Augusta Rowing Club. I found a young man clinging to an overturned one-person rowing shell about 50 yards from the ramp. He seemed happy to see me and said he appreciated the ride to the club dock.

Still on the drama theme, this photo shows what I found after I parked the rig and did a walk around inspection.

That's a big oops! I guess I got in too big of a hurry to get everything back together the last time I had the prop off  for minor repairs.

Re-tightening will be done strictly to Michigan Wheel specs before Ms. Bettencourt goes back in the water.

Finally, I have talked with a canvas guy in Charleston and it is still my plan to trailer Ms. Bettencourt over there the week of August 6. If I get a design and a price quote I like for a canvas enclosure, I'll just leave her in Charleston to get the work done.