This is a great place to be. Your baby is now healed. You've kicked some serious butt and toiled in the grime like the best of the boat-yard boys. You'll be well known in the yard by this point. Some of the yard guys will keep dropping by to check your progress. They love nuts like us who jump in full bore. One guy at my yard, who was charged with walking the yard every Friday, followed my job from start to finish. He told me after it was done that it was a 7-8K job if I had one of them do it. "You won't have to worry about that hull for decades." Ok, time to prevent any future crimes against your hull by the evil effects of water and hydrolysis. What you need is a good barrier coat. Again, I went with West System. The decision really came down to West or Interlux. I stuck with West because both are recomended, and I was already using West epoxies. The difference really between the two is in the dry time, or better known as "how long do I have before I have to sand the hull before adding another coat. If it's cool where you live, then Interlux gives you flexibility. You can re-coat up to two weeks without having to sand first. So, if using West like me, and you can't get all your coats on in one day because the cool temps make for longer drying time between coats, then you can be sure you're going to have to do some sanding of the hull the next morning before adding more coats. But, this sort of sanding is pretty easy and fast. Just a quick once over with some 100 grit to rouqh the surface up. Ok, let's get started.... First, prep the boat by washing the hull with water to remove any sanding dust, and letting it dry. Then, mask the water line with *Electical Tape*. Electrical tape, as reccomended by West, is easy to remove and thus can be left on much longer than masking or other tape. Cover prop and shaft with newspaper, etc. Ideally, you should remove all through hulls. But, I just masked them off (covered them). Figure I can each season tackle a through hull if needed. In the end, the barrier coat made a fine seal around, and to, each through hull fixture. I don't anticipate any problems. West reccomended 5-6 coats of barrier coat unless you already had blisters. So, I did 8 coats total. Plus, I was only able to do two coats my first day due to being very cool. So, I had to sand between my 2nd and 3rd coats. The first coat is straight epoxy, no barrier coat additive. All subsiquent coats include West Barrier Coat Additive (422). Barrier coat is basically Epoxy rolled on with a paint roller. The sponge rollers offered by West, while expensive, did provide the right thickness and were lengths that were easy to work with. I found I was using 2 sponge rollers a coat, sometimes more if the temps were low and the epoxy was thus harder to spread evenly. The sponge roller would deteriorate faster in this case. Once you roll on the first coat (no barrier additive) you have to wait until it's adequately tacky. Then, roll on your second coat, etc. I found the best temperature to work under with fast drying hardner (205) was in the mid-upper 70's. Man, I was able to apply batches of 6-10 pumps quickly and easily, and by the time I was done with an entire coat, I was ready to start the next one. This let me get 4+ coats on in a day. With two people and a good warm day, 6-8 coats in a day is doable. After each batch is spread out, you have to "tip" your application. Take a foam bruch, or even a foam roller cut in half, and drag it systematically along the applied barrier coat to help remove (actually, more like limit) "orange peel"...the dimpling of epoxy. It is *KEY* to alternate the direction (horizontal vs. verticle) of your tipping between coats. You limit much more orange peel effect if you alternate directions. Even so, once the last coat is dried, you will more than likely have some orange peel. The warmer your temps, the smoother the epoxy will spread out and "run". Helpfull hinds.... Eye protection is imperative here! WARNING: splattering epoxy from a foam roller isn't fun in the eyes. Trust me. Have plenty of foam rollers, tipping brushes, rolling pan liners, and even roller frames for when you forget to change the foam roller and it bonds to the frame while eating lunch. Trust me. ;-) Be sure to apply enough barrier coat where the keel and hull meet. It's not so easy to remember to really get the roller in there. Trust me. Wear clothes that you will eventually throw away. Buy latex/vinal gloves by the hundred (for any epoxy work). The attached photo....is of a freshly applied barrier coat waiting for its final sanding. Notice the shine from the wax that cured epoxy can produce. Next episode..... Final sanding of your barrier coat. Kevin in VT