Vlog 337: Wet T-Shirt

Having brought the boat out of water for refurbishment, it first needed a really good shower to get some of the long-standing muck off. With hindsight, I probably should have taken up the offer from the yard of a more powerful, petrol-driven jetwash but at the time I thought the little electric unit would be OK. It did clean a lot of muck off but the boat’s still a bit mucky in places and no matter how much I sploshed water over it, some dirt remained resolutely not washed off.

The blasting also took off a lot of the old antifouling paint, cutting through about three layers in places to reveal what I assume to be the original gelcoat underneath. All said though, the hull doesn’t look to be in bad condition at all underneath, with just a handful of nasty gouges out of the corners at the stern which I should be able to fill with some Teroson (aka Plastic Padding) marine filler. Then I “just” need to scrape off and sand back the paintwork and put a new layer of gel coat over the whole thing and buff to a shine.

That’ll be the lower hull done, then I can do the same to the top deck and the outside will be finished and the boat can be returned to the water. I am intending to buy a new outboard motor though, one with electric start. Given the limited budget for the project, I will either buy a new unit from Tohatsu (as they seem to be cheaper than the other typical brands such as Suzuki or Mariner or Honda etc though they still seem to have a decent reputation) or I will investigate used units though these are always liable to doubt as to their history and condition, of course.