Tuesday, October 13, 2015

O'day Daysailer Project


 One day this boat followed me home.  I couldn't turn it away.  I was attached to the Widgeon, but this boat was better suited to my growing family.  But, it needed a lot of work. I went to it.  Bleach, soap, scrub brush, sweat.  Took it out for a spin and found out that it leaked.

The hull was painted (for no good reason) with 3 coats of thick rust oleum like paint.  
 I trailered the boat and headed home.
 After some ingenious rigging with straps and ratchets, I got the 500 pound boat up on it's side and started sanding. 
The first coat went ok,  I had to buy a radial sander. 

 The second coat was a bit tougher and I was feeling discouraged.  I dove into the 3rd coat.

 I had started the process with 60 grit sandpaper and was working up to 2000 grit wet sanding.  5 different grits to finish it out.  But,  I wanted to make sure that I was going to end up with a good outcome so I finished up a little square.  Once I rinsed and dried it, I could see the reflection of sky and trees in the shine on the hull.  I got really excited.  
 I finally got it complete sanded down and polished up to a shine.  I removed the center board and found a big crack in the hull which I epoxied. 
Finally got it back down to the lake recently and out for a ride.  The Widgeon is fun to sail, but I'm going to enjoy this bigger faster boat.  The family is too.  Can't wait to get it down to Charleston!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

could i see the inside of the centerboard area?