And so it begins

[SailingCal21]

I know what you mean 25, while starting a project of the magnitude of redoing the deck is difficult because of so many unknowns, the finishing phase is excruciating, because you can see the end and the steps to get there. I'd like to say that I've been sailing however down here on the Bay this July, its been in the 100's and pretty much windless. I was wondering how you've been able to work on YOT. I suppose that the weather has been somewhat tolerable.

 

[25yearslater]

Hi Cal. It's hot here also. Mostly I use my bandana to keep the sweat out of my eyes. Of course when spraying gelcoat the respirator fills with sweat and simulates drowning quite well. The key word here is sweat and lots of it. I'm a man possessed at this point.

 

[jibes138]

Wow, That's amazing. I thought you wore the Bandana because you wanted to look like Jimi Hendrix when he played at Woodstock. I guess I learn something every day.
You should invent a drain or a dessicant for a respirator, I bet you'd make a fortune with something like that.

 

[25yearslater]

Up one side and down the other. As most of you know I have had a dickens of a time getting this microfine nonskid pattern to lay down without bumps. After careful research and excessive trial and error I finally have it to my satisfaction. One major problem is the thin nature of the finished pattern. A complete cure seems impossible using standard techniques. Without a suficiently thick coating around .020 inches enough crosslinking of the molecules doesn't take place for a full cure. So my formula that has achieved the desired results was 60% gelcoat, 40% Duratech High Gloss Additive, 5% wax additive and 1% MEKP catalyst. Don't be bashful about laying in to the squeegee. Use firm pressure to get the mold down completely and the excess gelcoat out from under it. If the mix is too thick it will be impossible to get it to lay flat. I am pleased to say that I have achieved a surface as good as a new boat. So here's a peek at what is acheivable.

 

[jibes138]

That looks amazing 25yearslater. You should patent the process!

 

[25yearslater]

Ahoy jibes. For a good comparison examine the previous picture closely. On the port side, or the photo right, you will see what appear as shadows. These are the lumps that result from having the mix too thick. The 60/40 percent ratio is working very well. With the thinner mix the mold lays down flat and the squeegee is able to move the excess out from under it far more readily. As a process I'm afraid Gibco holds the patent. What I have done is use their product to lower the overall cost. As Todd aka Panta Rei is about to do is pour the molding material on his deck and duplicate what is there. That is what I had originally planned but my deck was too torn up and worn to yield a good mold. So with a few more sections remaining the end is in sight. I am still working on the patch process for those very minor areas that have less than perfect looks due to mold imperfections. So tomorrow I will post some pictures of the new port deck with the thinner mix for a side by side comparison and the small patched area. Ta for now.

 

[25yearslater]

Oh rats. More 74-30 Urethane is in order. I ran out of the stuff as one mold failed to cure and the cabin top can't be reversed from one side to another. 3 lousy molds away and denied. No biggee plenty of other stuff before the big Labor Day gelcoat extravaganza. That will be the hull shoot with a very bright white. So for now what it looks like with half the cabin top printed. Almost there, so close. Yipee.

 

[25yearslater]

From stem to stern. Having been delayed perfecting the nonskid portion of the project it was time to hustle with those things that are temperature dependant such as gelcoating the hull. Purchasing an HVLP cup gun at Lowes and finding Express Composites as an inexpensive source for Duratech High Gloss Additive, www.expresscomposites.com the gelcoating is moving forward fast. The white is from US Composites and is made by Cook Polymers. The gun is a Kobalt brand 1 quart type and when thinning the gelcoat/duratech use between 5 and 10% Duratech Reducer. This helps minimize the orange peel but does not eliminate it altogether. Wet sanding and buffing are still required though less so than with a thinned gelcoat/wax mixture. The benefit of using the Duratech is it is not supposed to yellow as waxed gelcoat do. We'll see in time. So now for the cabin and cockpit and let the sanding begin.

 

[rajhnsn]

was it difficult to keep the gelcoat from running or being too thin?

 

[25yearslater]

Hi Rajhnsn, long time no hear. I trust everything went well with Irene? No the gelcoat even thinned wasn't too bad as far as runs or sags. I have 2 or 3 runs but the nice thing about gelcoat is, it has to be wet sanded anyway as the stuff will orange peel when sprayed. This eliminates run concerns to a degree. The hardest part was calculating the desired thickness. Too thin it won't cure and too thick it will crack. .015 thick is the optimum thickness. Even the runs aren't showing signs of cracking. Tonight I shot the port side. Don't even try to fill the gun with more than 20 to 24 ounces at a time. The gun holds a liter or slighly more than 1 quart but even with the slow catalyst it will gel in the gun before you can spray all of it. When the gun spits and sputters it is a good sign it has 'kicked' and it's a mad dash to get it disassembled and cleaned out. If you hesitate you get to buy a new gun. 20 ounces catalyzed at a time is about the max I was able to work with without gelling. Catalyze each 20 ounces separately. It's pretty much like epoxy with the large mass exotherming faster than the smaller batch. Anyway the port side is now white and this white is real white. It is by comparison equal to the Awlgrip 'Snow White' which is an extremely bright white. So this weekend I'll be finishing the cabin top nonskid and spraying the cabin and cockpit with white barring any delay in getting my next order of gelcoat which should arrive Friday. I ran out of the neutral again to make more light gray. So here's YOT sporting a completely recolored boot and shear stripe with the new white. Next up the dread wet sanding. I waited until dusk to use flash to give a better idea of how white this white is.

 

[jibes138]

Hey YOT, how white is white? It looks like my t-shirts after my wife washes them with all tempa-cheer :>)
Did you get flooded up there in the high country?

 

[rajhnsn]

She looks great. Better than new I would imagine. Irene was kind to me both in NJ and Rock Hall. No damage. Is the new boot stripe gelcoat or paint?

 

[25yearslater]

I'll cover the nice stuff first. Good to hear Windward Jan came through all right, jibes. Looks like the three anchor approach was the right set up. Most of the heavy stuff went east of Rochester, NY though we did get the very western edge of Irene. From Syracuse, which is 80 miles east, to Albany and up through the Adirondack region got the worst of it. The white is so blinding a lesser buffing on the topsides should prevent eye injury on a sunny day. And for Raj, the boot and sheer stripes are also gelcoat. Good to hear you came through without damage. One problem I am finding through the wet sanding is the Duratech renders a translucent coating that inhibits the gelcoat's opaque charateristics. Bleed through of any color other than the color being applied becomes obvious though muted as the few mils are removed through the sanding. I will be respraying with pure white gelcoat and then over spraying that with the Duratech and gelcoat mix to insure the proper cure. The darker colors don't seem as prone to this problem and thinner thicknesses seem to suffice. Not really a big problem but it would be a good idea to plan on 33% more gelcoat than a standard shoot. So for now I'm gonna get some rest and tomorrow I'll be sanding and spraying like an autobody tech who had waaaay to much coffee.

 

[25yearslater]

So there it is. Everything but the cockpit floor is now O freaking riginal Oday nonskid deck per the way it came from the factory. I have something special planned for the floor that ought to warp the cosmic existence of my fellow oday owners. But first a few pics of the completed cabin top and cockpit seats and hatches. There is one deviation as the master mold patten was only 6 feet long and the cabin top was 6 feet 10 inch. Being unsuccesful in blending a continuation I took jibes advise and placed a break which will be white running athwartships from the mast step. So there is that part and I'm whipped.

 

[jibes138]

Did you launch that little girl and gone sailing? This thread has gone dead. Should be plenty of water under the keel up there in NY at this point.

 

[25yearslater]

Not quite jibes. I've been finishing up the sanding in preparation of the final gelcoat application to the cabin. Then done other than wet sand and buff. I did manage to reshoot the hull with two coats of catalyzed gelcoat thinned 10% with duratech thinner and then two more coats of gelcoat at 50/50 with duratech high gloss additive and thinned 7% with the duratech thinner. Now I have the .015 inch thick coating I was after. All in all it consumed 1 full gallon of gelcoat and 1/2 gallon of additive. I removed the cabin windows and attempted to disect them in hopes of replacing the lenses. Nope, the lenses were freaking glued in. Splitting the frame was easy but to heck with it I'm gonna replace 'em. I did discover that oday didn't use any type of spacer between the liner and cabin at the window location. This seems a bit shoddy and may explain the difficulty with keeping them from leaking. I will use some of my non structural major goof up plywood to make a reinforcing frame to add some rigidity to the cutouts. So other than that I'll spare everyone the monotonous tedium of all the prepwork sanding. Just be ready for a seemingly endless task if you go full boat regelcoat like I did.

 

[Panta Rei]

Joe, you did the topsides and possibly the interior not the hull right?
My boat has no frames as well. I'll fill with something like 5200. If it leaks I want it to come inside where I can see it.

 

[25yearslater]

Hi Todd. I am gelcoating everything. Hull, topsides and interior although the interior is more patchwork than a full recoating. If you remember the POI (previous owner imbecile) had chopped holes everywhere conceivable. After they were repaired those areas were regelcoated. I had no idea what a labor intensive job this would be but I wouldn't change it for anything. What is materializing before my rank amatuer eyes is truly a thing of beauty. Just the wet sanding and buffing in the interior is an amazing transformation. When I reinstall the new windows I won't caulk internally. The gap fillers I'll be making will be epoxied in between the cabin outside and the liner providing a leak telltale much as I have done with the chainplates. Like you I want to know immediately if something is leaking. The spacers are only to hold the cabin structure in some kind of plane as I noticed distortion in the cabin sides with the factory system. I'll get some photos up here in the near future as I complete some of these tasks. You and I both know winter is right around the corner up in these northern lattitudes so temperature critical projects are being hustled.

 

[jibes138]

Just a suggestion but why don't you splash it, sail it south for the winter, and finish the remaining work basking in the warmth of the sunny south? I lived in the North for a long time, sailing season was about 4 months long, now it is twelve months long. I'm hiring a couple of production supervisors in my factory if you're interested.

 

[SailingCal21]

No spacers or framing between the cabin and liner at the port lights? Well that 'splains it Lucy.

Thanks 25, I was concerned about the deformation of the liner around a few of the port lights on Karma.