Nugland

Not super quickly, though. (I have been in Atlanta and am heading out tonight for St. Augustine.)

I did manage to knock out the leather covering for four of the nine shrouds. I now have a proper leather hole-punch, so it went a lot smoother than the forestay. I was learning as I did them so the quality varies a little. By the last one, I figured out one main thing: the sail-maker’s twine doesn’t hold knots very well.

A way around that was to finish the covering of the loop with a decent length of twine left, and to use that twine to stitch the covering over the nicopress fitting.

The standing rigging on the Centennial was (partially) fashioned in the traditional way, that is: with loops on the end of the shrouds that go over the masts, rather than modern fittings and shackles.

The shrouds are modern, though, in that they are made of stainless steel cable, and that creates an issue: the shrouds can be hard on the masts, and a bit noisy.

The Loys came up with the solution of lacing leather over them, and we’re continuing that style. I got a big bag of pigskin scraps and we’re lacing that over the loops. I really like how they look (click pic for more).

Long term, I’ll be tempted to figure out a shackle-based attachment scheme that includes turnbuckles (especially since we’re not obliged to drop the masts every year).

Sam, Mark and Nicole laying it down.

I was happy on Saturday. I invited friends to come and help start painting of Centennial’s hull, and almost everyone showed up. We got a ton of work done on Saturday, including: sanding all of the topsides, cleaning them with pre-paint (MEK), and getting a coat of primer on them.

It went well, but the primer was a little annoying (it was thick and dried too quickly). Joanna and I went back on Sunday (by ourselves) and were able to get the second coat on. For that, we experimented with thinning the primer and discovered that a consistency somewhere between whole milk and heavy cream was perfect.

You had to watch for drips, but the coverage was excellent (and painless). The technique changed, though; you roll first then cut right away, but also smooth out the rolled area with the brush. With the right amount of thinner added, the brush strokes just disappear.

Technical details:
Primer: Interlux Pre-Kote
Thinner: Interlux Brushing Liquid 303
Cleaner: Methyl Ethyl Ketone
Sandpaper: 80 grit

So, the boat has 20 years of paint on it. And it’s green. I really like green (it is easily the dominant color in my wardrobe), but not on Centennial for some reason. And I wanted to give her a fresh start on Lake Erie.

I knew that the job of sanding all that paint off would drag all through the summer (and be a drag generally), so I resolved to get her soda-blasted and in the water during 2009. A little expensive (it costs more than the paint, actually), but, from what I’ve read in my research, quick and very effective.

Now that I’ve had a day’s exposure to the process, I’m really glad I didn’t try a DIY solution. Turns out that the paint on Centennial is pretty serious stuff. Even switching to glass beads, it would have taken several days to remove all of the green paint, and the many layers of salt-water bottom paint had the dude from Blasterclean shaking his head. It also billowed out of the tent he made, which made me nervous about the yard getting on my case. And it inflamed my sinuses. Blech.

There’ll still be quite a bit of green paint on her when we start repainting, but it’ll be green paint that wouldn’t come off with glass bead blasting, so I figure it’ll make a fine surface. And I’m going with some high-quality black stuff, so coverage will not be an issue.

The pic is also a link to the other pictures.

We made it back to the Centennial last weekend. We got the leeboards off and set up on sawhorses in anticipation of the soda-blasting happening on Tuesday. Thursday looks more likely now, what with rain forecast until then.

The four new sawhorses are from Harbor Freight. They seem very sturdy, and were only $15 each, but each one had 26 bolts, 26 nuts, and 8 wood screws that had to dealt with. That got old fast.

The leeboards weren’t that bad to deal with. They are pretty heavy, and the hardware was a little balky. That said, leeboards have to be tons less of a hassle than a centerboard.

All the paint, topsides and bottom, is now in hand or on the way. Things should get underway Saturday morning, sharpish. Anyone who wants to help with the painting can contact me or leave a message here.