Repainting mast and boom

[Dalliance]

The spars on my 1982 Hunter 30 were originally painted white by the manufacturer. Over the years the P.O. added a couple additional coats and last summer all three, but mostly what remained of the 26 year old original coat, started peeling badly - exposing bare aluminum. At haul out last fall I unstepped the mast with the intention of stripping and repainting it myself this spring. Then I did the research I should have done first and realized it's a bigger job than I will have time to take on myself this year, so I got a cost estimate for the work today from Lakeshore Marine. They were recommended by the yacht yard. It's good I was sitting down at the time because it's a bit more than I expected. $4,616.17 to be exact. They propose to chemically strip, etch, prime and paint the 40 foot mast, boom & spreaders with Awlgrip. The breakdown is $3,570 for 42 hours labor @$85/hour, $959.79 for supplies & materials, and $86.38 tax. At that price, it won't happen this year. Or next. Oh well, it's a good time to give the standing rigging a good inspection anyway.So, that said, I have three questions for everyone: First, does this sound like a reasonable, fair price for this work? Second, is Awlgrip the right choice or is it overkill for this job? And third, can any of you recommend someone less expensive in the Chicago area?

 

[caguy]

You can probably get it anodized for less than that.

 

[Rich (P303)]

sounds about right...

for a boatyard... your getting screwed @ 85 an hour. Somebody will go out there and tell the High School kids what to do... until it's time for the awlgrip. I would go the anodized route... if you can find someone that can handle that length.Sounds like a project.

 

[Rob19574]

Big Job

James -Thats about right. It took me about 4 weekends to do the job myself not counting the evenings I put in disassembling and reassembling my boom in the basement over the winter. Sanding and paintings is actually the easy part.....disassembling and reassembly takes a lot of work and detail. I used imron which is similar to Awlgrip - but you will find many opinions on that (both 2-part types coatings). I also replaced all the wiring and hardware which added extra time to the project so perhaps you can do it in less time.I am not familiar with anodizing as mentioned here. My recco if your going to use paint and DIY - go for a quality 2-part paint and just roll-n-tip it on. You will give up some of the shine but it will be minimal. Its a mast / boom - not a hull where you would really want a wet-finish shine.Good luck - Rob

 

[Bill Coxe]

Mast/boom maintenance

When the boom on my O28 started exhibiting signs of deterioration, I removed it, took it home, wirebrushed the daylights out of it after removing as many fixtures as I could, wiped it down with acetone and hit it with an aluminum outdrive spray primer paint, then gave it two coats of off-white rustoleum. I don't remember the total cost, but it held up for at least the three years until I sold it.FWIW, Bill Coxe, O40 Kukulcán, New Bern, NC

 

[gfrazzle]

New Mast?

I did mine last year when I had the rigging replaced. Decided to do it myself after an estimate similar to yours. Did it in 3 weekends but it was a LOT of work.Halfway through the job my rigger suggested that it would cost about the same to replace with a new mast and I would end up with a new spar. I didn't check on price but he said he has replaced several for about the same price (or even less ) than having the yard do the painting. Might be worth a check. Down time would probably be a factor.

 

[Ed Schenck]

Aesthetics are costly!

It is so hard to justify the expense of keeping the boat pristine. Regardless of how much money you have I think of all the things one can do with $5000. I once spent $1000. to have the topsides done on my 1979. The results were spectacular! But you should see what I did to those shiny sides in the Erie Canal! Same with the mast. It will look great until the first time you unstep/step it. What I have done for the past ten years is simply cover the bare spots. I feather and sand the spots and then prime them with a spray. Then a couple of coats of Rustoleum Off-white gives a pretty good match.But I know how it is to be docked beside the guy with the shiny black carbon spars on starboard and over on port a nice boat with all anodized aluminum.

 

[Joseph Shirley]

I did my mast last year

I had to unstep my mast to truck my boat back from Mexico and thought it was a good time to redo the paint job on the mast since it hadn't been done in 10 years. The boat yard at that time had a rate of $65/hr and I winced at their estimate. Fortunately for me they were extremely busy and their mast paint shed was stuffed with stuff so they suggested that I do all the prep work which I did. They ended up just spraying the mast with Sterling (similar to Awlgrip) and it only cost a few hundred dollars. My problem was that they didn't finish there part of the deal for almost 3 months which cost me most of the sailing season. I was unhappy at the time but feel a little better about it now that some time has passed and it still looks good.See if they will let you do the prep. A few days, A couple of gallons of paint remover, some sandpaper, some tarps, and a few beers and sandwiches for some help, could save you a bundle.

 

[Scott]

You can save a lot if ...

you do it yourself. Having the time and the place to do it is a big factor, though, and you will have to pay for those commodities if you don't have them. I'm assuming that transporting a 40' mast to your basement is a problem. When I did the job, I was able to get our 33' mast home to do the job and it took at least the 42 hours that they quote; but, I expect that they could be much more efficient with their time. What if you took the boom and the spreaders home and did them yourself ... that could save something.I guess I would start out by asking a lot of questions. Will they let you remove all the hardware and sand (I sanded rather stripped the old paint off)the spars? Maybe you can cut down on the hourly rate if you can do the prep work. Like somebody said, much of the work will take no skill so maybe there could be some negotiation on that end of the work.Having said that ... are they removing all the hardware rather than painting around it? I would clarify that. There were some parts that were rivited on to the mast and boom with some pretty substantial stainless steel rivits and I really didn't want to mess with that so I took the short cut and worked around those few parts (the spreader ears and the vang attachment). I would expect that they would be prepared to remove them but I would ask the question just the same. Will they fix the hours or is it just an estimate? They could easily spend more hours doing this job, especially if they use cheap, inefficient labor for the prep work. You don't want to be paying $85 per hour when they go over the hours budgeted because the were using some kids that weren't all that efficient.You want to do this with a 2-part primer and 2-part surface paint. I don't know if Awlgrip is the premier product or not. I used Interlux Perfection and love the result. The price for supplies seems way too high. The products are expensive but you don't need that much. You won't need even a quart of the etching primer so that should cost less than $50. You need to spend about $200 for the 2-part primer and surface. I think I got a quart of primer and 2 quarts of Perfection. I had plenty of primer left after 2 coats and I put on at least 4 coats of the surface just to use it up. My memory is a little fuzzy because I bought a quart of each to do the boom one year and it was good for the next year when doing the mast, except that I had to buy another quart of Perfection to finish the mast at about $65 per quart. Unless you are buying other parts or supplies, $900 for paint is about 3 times too much. What else do they need to provide?With your 40' stick, and the boom, I would think that you could get multiple coats of the final product with 2 to 3 quarts tops. I bet you would need only 1 quart of the 2-part primer and 1 quart of the etching primer. I would ask those questions and be armed with the price per quart from any retailer.I WOULD encourage you to find a way to get this job done. The improvement is really noticeable and you will be happy. Failing to get the price down, maybe new spars are a better alternative!

 

[Dalliance]

Thanks everyone.

This is real good input from a lot of experienced people. I think my next step will be to ask a lot of questions about what I would really be getting for this price and then see were negotiation gets me. It's really helpfull to see your responses before I do that. You've also pointed out several options I had not thought of.

 

[Warren Milberg]

A few years ago,

I watched the pro's in our yard here on the Chesapeake take a huge mast down off of a Hans Christian. Not sure how long it was, but it looked like a telephone pole when they laid it out on horses near my slip. Since I had to walk by it every time I sailed, I watched the work and progess. They removed all the hardware (lots of it...)and the old paint, then prepped the surface (not sure of the method), then Algripped it in ivory. It looked spectacular. Whenever I see a job like this, I always ask myself if I could (1) do it myself and (2) if so, could I replicate the results. Both answers were clearly "no." I don't know what that job cost, but am sure it was a bundle. But it sure was worth it to whoever the owner was.

 

[letterman]

not sure why I am replying

Scotty, engage the safety shield.Aye, Captain.I used to anodize aluminum tanks. We used an acid that ate into the metal. Two coatings did the trick. You will have to find a place in Chicago that does it to find out what type of acid it was. Believe me, anodizing is a simple job.Why bother? A. You are on a fresh water lake.B. The mast was painted once before and probably still has paint on it.C. Why not lightly sand it and repaint it?D. Lightly sanding will most likely take any anodizing off. Maybe. So if it does, you should only have to do those areas. I'd just wash it and repaint it. You might want to call a few places that powder coat stuff and ask them if they could do a 40' pole or whatever the length is. Or, if you are handy, you could buy the stuff and do it yourself.However, I'd go with two part paint and roll and tip it.

 

[Dalliance]

Thanks again -

Letterman (and others), anodizing does intrigue me. I like the idea of letting aluminum look like what it is. I was actually hoping to find that the mast was originally anodized and the PO had just painted over it. That was not the case. Hunter confirmed that the mast was orignially painted by the spar manufacturer and was not anodized. Since Dalliance is one of the "Cherubini Hunters" designed by John Cherubini and thought of so fondly by many Hunter owners, I felt that I should stay true to the designer's intent and repaint the mast. That I felt that way is no doubt due to my also being a designer. Though of buildings, not boats.Given the first cost estimate and my limited time available this spring, the light sanding and Rustoleum route is tempting, but I think it would be a short term fix at best since it appears that most of the paint that is failing is the orignal manfacutrer's paint under the others. If the job is really done right, my gut instinct is that the stripping and prep work represents about 2/3 of the project cost and the net difference between anodizing and painting could be nominal. However, if I find that anodizing can really save me money, then forget the designer, I'll have to seriously consider it... And that makes me sound like one of my clients.