Back on Somerledi for more bottom removal fun. The scope of this mobile project is to restore her bottom (new barrier coat and anti-foul paint), plus new seacocks and thru-hulls, and other items as time permits given the owner's desire to relocate Somerledi to New York.

I was back at the full Tyvek and full-face respirator for removal of the 5 layers of anti-foul paint, stopping short of removal the existing barrier coat paint over top of the original gelcoat. As mentioned in previous posts, through removal of the bottom paint there were quite a number of blisters that revealed themselves - both repaired and newly forming blisters. The new forming blistering are very small, and after grinding a few out, it is apparent that the blisters are forming in the first layer of glass - a lot of the first layer is showing dry, meaning insufficient resin was used in the layup. The successive layers appear, for the most part, to be effectively wet out with resin. Anyway, an ongoing and case by case basis.

I started in at the starboard aft and worked the water line forward, removing bottom paint down to the turn in the bilge - this was the bulk of the day, coming to roughly seven hours. The owner of Somerdeli was on hand as well, and devoted his time to grinding out blisters on the port hull. Some additional work will be done on this areas - 400+ - but the owner did a great job at getting his boat back to "Bristol".

I spent the last ~20 minutes removing the mushroom heads of the thru-hulls, as both the seacocks and thru-hulls are to be replaced.

Total Hrs: 7.25