Plastic Classic Forum

After building the shelter I was able to start the final coats of paint. I first painted the deck, cabin, boot stripe, and top accent stripe a frosty white color.

Thanks for updating your big ongoing project. I've also had problems getting primers to go on smooth enough that you don't have to sand most of it off to get it level. I found that just rolling it on with a foam roller was better than roll and tip because it dries too fast and doesn't level itself. The roller stipple was easier to sand out than the deep brush marks. In recent years I mostly spray the primer and paint in our boat shed. Epoxy Primekote sprays OK for me as well as an Alexseal primer I've used.

Looking forward to more updates.

Amazing boat and work, David - she is going to be gorgeous. Given the stoutness of her construction and all that teak woodwork, I guessed she was a Taiwan build, but looking at sailboatdata.com it shows that some were made in Canada, and there were also "kit" versions. Whichever yours was, you are sure 'doing it right' now.

I'm not sure what issue is causing your image uploads/attachments to fail. Let me know if you are seeing any error messages, or anything like that which may tell us how to get it working best for you.

In trying to figure it out, I did notice that the software seems to be cutting the image size off at 300kb, so I will up that to make it easier for folks to share.

Looking forward to more updates!

Its been a while since i last updated. Here are some pics of the topcoat on the deck, accent stripe, and cabin trunk. I used Awlgrip white for both the accent and boot stripe.This whole project was a learning curve for me as I have never spray painted anything like this before. My arms were aching by the time Got done with the third coat.

Still having trouble with those pics! Let me try again.

Yet another.

Seems like I can only get one pic per post.

Next comes the final primer for the hull.

I have to say the gray is so much better than the yellow!

And then finally the hull topcoat.

I so impressed myself. Not single run, no orange peel, no sags!

The colors came out so nice. I really like the maroon hull against the frosty white. This was such a great moment for us. this is the result of months of sanding, filling, sanding, fairing, sanding ....... You get the idea, finally the end is in site.

Next came the non-skid. We used a product from Durabak. I first had to tape off all the areas we did not want to get it on.

The taping took a considerable amount of time. I wanted to get everything just right. Symmetry and proportion is important if you want it to look good.

Even though the original non-skid was long gone I wanted to keep the same pattern it had around the hatches and so forth. on the deck I just tried to mimic what was on the cabin top. The deck was teak before. So all the raised areas for the genoa track, tank fills, stanchions and cleats were added when we recored the deck. I just looks right to have some smooth areas around them.

The Durabak product is made to be applied with a roller, It is thick and messy; however, with the help of my wife we were able to coat everything twice in one day. It came out looking pretty good, but still seems thin in some areas. It feels good when you kneel on it, not too rough. But it also seems to grip well with wet feet and soles on my shoes.

There's that upside down thing again. Even when i flip the picture on my computer it still does that! How aggravating.

It did it again! Urrrrrrg!

Okay I'm done for the night. No more upside down pics! Sorry for the mess.

Not sure why they are upside down, but I can fix them, and will later today when I get the chance. Don't let it stop you from posting them - the pics are good and of excellent work! She is going to be a showstopper when you are done with her. Very nice!!!

Just found this thread , nicely documented @rescuesailor . Wow what can I say , sorry to hear about your set backs but it seems you are forging forward . I will be following along . Hang in there !
https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/true-north-34

Took a bit longer than expected, but turns out that the "upside-down images" was due to a bug in the prior version of software... which was what we were running, up until I updated it just now.

So hopefully no more "upside-down picture problems".

Back again to post progress on the boat. This time I am finishing the bowsprit. It is made of wood and is in very good shape. I completely strip it of all hardware and paint. I then carefully examined it for any rot or defects. Not finding any defects I over drilled all of the holes where hardware attached and filled with epoxy. I then drilled them out to accept the bolts. After more sanding I started the process of painting.

This shows the top coat.

After the paint dried it was onto attaching the hardware and wings. Then varnish, varnish, varnish!and more varnish

Varnish

Finally it gets attached to the boat.

I think I like the way it looks .

P.S. Thanks CapnK for helping with the upside down picture thing. It was driving me crazy. And thanks for reviving this forum. I have learned so much from it and the work I am able to do on the Christina Louise is a direct result of that knowledge.

I'm as glad as you are that they got that picture issue fixed.

And keep posting your pics - such nice work. Love that big ol' bronze cranse iron on the sprit!!!

Since I got the bowsprit back on, I figured it was time to tackle the rudder. The Christina Louise is a tiller steered boat with a transom hung rudder. I not sure if "rudder" is a proper name for something that is approximately 9 foot tall and weighs over three hundred pounds! Barn door might be more appropriate. At any rate it was built of two slab of wood glued together and covered in fiberglass. When I first bought the boat and had it hauled out of the water it was apparent the fiberglass had cracked right down the seams on both the front and the back of the rudder. Not much water ran out upon the haul out but at any rate I drilled holes and allowed it to dry out over a period of two years. When I began the work in earnest I ground out the seams to begin the repairs.

The next step was to fill the seams and drain holes with thickened epoxy and fiberglass cloth. I made sure to reinforce the edges with plenty of fiberglass to ensure they would not crack in the future. this job was really more difficult than it looks due to the amount of material I removed before fiberglassing. This was to make sure i did not change the shape of the rudder and it dynamics in the water.

After hours of sanding and applying epoxy i finally arrived at a suitable surface ready for paint. I used the same Awlgrip products to match the hull. The painting went without a hitch. After several coats of primer i painted the white boot stripe first and then the burgundy for the topsides.

After the paint drys I attached the bronze pintles and the wood blocks at the top.

Fill in the bungs and start the process of finishing the teak.

Finally after several weeks of work, I was able to re-hang the rudder. A yard buddy and I were able to rig a double block system to the staging and shelter I built and hauled the thing in place. It was heavy but the pulley system worked well. It was good used of rigging and blocks that have been neglected for quite some time. The result is in the picture!