Starting Sept. 3 and ending Sept. 8, me, my girlfriend and a friend managed to get most of the exterior cosmetic work done on Alberg 30, #439 at a marina near Lively, Virginia. (Rappahannock River)
Here are the before and after pics (and some action photos), though the before pic was taken a few months ago. Three of the lexan portlights did not fit, but otherwise we managed to knock out everything we set out to do.
Here is what we did:
* Sanded the old bottom paint off and applied bottomkote ACT. I will have to add another coat later, after I get the marina folks to move the stands. I waited until Labor Day when the marina was closed to do this dirty work. I sanded with 40-grit, then two passes with 80 grit. The respirators and crew were a lovely blue by the end of that long day.
* Sanded the entire deck and put down 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of polyurethane paint (brightsides, blu white). One pass with 80 grit and one with 120 grit, then 120-grit between primer and poly coats.
* Sanded topsides, put down 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of polyurethane paint (toplac, fort lauderdale blue)
* Mounted most of the deck hardware. I brought the winches home to service (lubricate). Most of the deck hardware was just backed up with small washers! This freaked me out a bit, so will likely be getting longer bolts and fashioning proper backing plates. I will probably get a lot of new deck hardware, it looks pretty rough next to the gleaming deck.
* Sanded and oiled most surface teak, but still need to mount it. The toe rails seem to need "bending" to match the curve of the hull, so wanted to ask about that.
Unfinished (or all that I can think of immediately):
* Paint the white stripes on the hull, right now the boottop is just primer and the cove stripe was overpainted with blue. There are several coats of enamel in the cove stripe, but need to get a 1-inch dremel brush attachment or something similar to grind it out properly. Hand sanding was going to take forever, and my other sanders would likely round off the indentation.
* Overhaul the Atomic 4.
* Mount aluminum 17-gallon fuel tank (it came in the day we were leaving.) The old one rusted through.
* Have the yard raise the mast.
* Get an aft pulpit. I guess not every Alberg 30 came with these? The bow pulpit is in OK shape, but I need to make new backing plates.
* Get a bilge pump.
* Get life insurance.
The interior looks like a tornado hit it, but that can be sorted out later.
Things I should have done differently:
* Used a shorter nap roller for the topside paint. The first coat was too thick and a little knobby. It failed the Helen Keller test, but I sanded it fairly smooth. A shorter nap was used on the second coat.
* Bought the $30 china bristle brush first! I used a $15 one for the first topside coat, and it left marks. The better brush was a dream to work with.
* I would have sanded out ALL of the tiny pimples on the hull. I sanded out only the open ones and epoxied them, but the "closed" ones later became open during sanding. Hopefully the primer will take care of them. They were roughly the size of a medium-point ballpoint pen tip, and there were only about 30 in four different areas. But still ...
* Read the instructions on the flattener. Contrary to what you might think, you have to use flattener in a one-to-one ratio (at least for interlux one-part paints) otherwise you are wasting your time). I had a gallon of Brightsides white, so used a quart of it for my glossy cabin sides and top, and figured the one quart flattener would de-gloss the remaining 3 quarts. But not even close! My whole deck is shimmering!
* Measured the windows better. Three windows would not fit. Amazingly, they all are slightly different, at least on this boat.
* Gotten out from under a tree! Pine straw was my biggest enemy. That and suicide insects.
* Made it less windy (maybe using tarps?) The first coat of topside paint suffered because one side of the boat was a bit windy. Otherwise, the weather was excellent, about 82 degrees with low humidity.
-- George
Note: In the pics, I am the blondish guy, my girlfriend is Allison and my trusty college pal is Bob, aka Mr. McSander. They are still talking to me after their "vacation."
BEFORE
AFTER
IN BETWEEN
I DRINK, THEY WORK
SHE LIKES THE BLUE
TWO-TONE
Mr. McSANDER
THE PORTER-CABLE!
AT LEAST THE FRAMES FIT MY HEAD
