Vinyl tap and wrap

Hull stripe and boot top

With great admiration and appreciation for Phil of Grapefruit Graphics and his attention to detail the boat is benefitting from his skill  After a full day's work on fitting the wide hull stripe, cove line in gold and the boot top in blue,  she has been renamed to Seascape, there is still a short length of the wide stripe to do, because muffins here mis measured the width by 5mm and Phil as a professional OCD practitioner refused to spoil the job!

Seascape of Southampton

Way to go - thanks Phil

   

There's the rub

So after a day's sanding with 600 grit on the electric sander, the starboard topsides were ready for the wet n dry treatment So Phil and I cracked on. Note the difference in styles! Phil and I agreed to do half each, question is where is half way! We never even did agree, but the shine was equally spectacular.  

 

Shineeeeee

  So now to get the vinyl sorted, booked in for the 29th so let's hope it's neither windy nor wet!  

It's all behind you

Using my new found education from Phil I was further delegated to polish the starboard quarter using the approved process - 600 grit, 1200 then 2000 followed by cutting compound and wax polish which I duly did although my shoulders were groaning after wet and drying the length each time. I don't know how Phil does it day in, day out! After the quarter I wanted to nominate myself  for a project and picked the transom, after all the Grapefruit boys and girls had told me that the order of vinyl for the sign writing and lettering was ready. So I did and had to deal with the detailing around the various skin fittings and stainless struts for the bathing platform. I had earlier removed the timbers and cleaned them with teak renovator and cleaner but they were still very rough surfaced with exposed fibres of teak which although good for non slip, were not particularly attractive. So with a generous response from Universal I borrowed their thicknesser, just before it was wheeled from their shed prior to refurbishment. With a bit of sanding I was able to get the teak back to a nicer condition and with shorter screws purchased that did not stand proud of the upper surface it was all put back together followed by a good coat of teak wax, Anyway this is how the transom looked beforehand:-

Before

Platform stripped off     So after much elbow grease and two goes as I was not entirely happy with the first go, I put the bathing platform back together after polishin the transom prior to the graphics being applied.

Not too bad

Quite like all this shining GRP

Shaving mirror

  Not bad for a beginner, thanks to Phil for his patience and mentoring, onwards and upwards, the graphics are all on my car that is the signage for the transom, the hull and the striping which can only be applied once we have finished restoring the topsides .    

You can easily see the now ubiquitous yellow staining and the dull oxidised finish to the glass fibre.

How many Inches in forty feet?

The task for the weekend set by Phil is to key up the blue stripe rubbing down scuffs and scratches and also to remove the Cove line or Covita line as Phil has come to call it. So a morning well spent on the blue stripe on the port side

Removing scuffs and rekeying

Then after coffee I turned to the cove line on the starboard side. Using a heat gun I found that I was able to lift a tag to pull, however when peeling the gold cove line back it would lift for an inch or so and then tear off! It was going to be a long afternoon

Inch worm

  After a while I learned that by using a lolly stick I could fit the semi circular valley and by heating consistently raise the edge, pull back the tape while not burning fingers, after much effort I was able to achieve a record of pulling off 8 inches in one go! Removing the adhesive required copious amounts of acetone and rubbing with an old cloth. So 2 hours later that was one side done and just enought time to warm the Warrior 40 logo and remove it gently with a sharp scraper and much acetone

Logo removal

Just before 18:00 after a long afternoon and slightly burned finger tips, the cove line and logo were both removed.

Huffin and buffin

An awful lot of labour has gone into Seascape's top sides following an infinite number of bumps and grazes, some of that labour was unfortunately not always of the highest standard. 

Phil has spent some time surveying the crazes and cracks along the topsides, probing and grinding them back to find all sorts of fillers have been used to fill the dinks.  

Dink discovery

Nothing escapes the eagle eyed Phil, he can glance at a hull and homes in on the unusual ripple and talks of laminate "grinning" through the gelcoat and can see a colour change in the gel from a thousand yards. Consequently every inch of the topsides is being checked, and like a surgeon , where there is infection the wound is cleaned , debrided and repaired properly using laminations of glass fibre and epoxy followed by layers of gelcoat. Layers and layers of gelcoat are applied to create a basis for rubbing them all down.  

Layers on layers of gelcoat

The rubbing down of gelcoat follows a well practiced protocol, the hors d'ouvre being 280 grit wet n dry which is used to thoroughly cut back and fair the hull often with a long board to smooth out the dents and bulges left by less concerned repeairers of the past historic and returning the hull to it's designed curves. Following the heavy cutting comes the start of the main course of finessing the gel by smoothing it using 400 and 600 grit which is held in the hand and rhythmically guided along the hull in a specific and well rehearsed fore and aft motion using the palm of the hand to hold the paper, never the fingers because they leave imperfect ridges which can be seen from afar with a trained eye. The application of soapy water acts as a lubricant as long sweeps of the hand horizontally are timed and spaced to never leave a gap, each sweep of the hand is followed by a tweaking dance of the opposite arm crossing the body in an exercise that is aerobic and burns calories as fast as any gym. We are not done yet as we continue to remove the ridges caused by the cutting by rubbing down with ever finer papers as we traverse 1200 grit and finally finish off with 2000 grit, again used wet and with the same tweaking motion carried out while balanced precariously on a scaffold blank some 5ft in the air! At this point the hull starts to provide payback and a shine starts to appear, but we are not done yet, 2000 grit is followed by cutting compound courtesy of 3m applied by rag and then driven in lazy figure of eights by a lambs wool bonnet on an electric buffer. Finally we apply polish with a cloth, wait for it to dry and then wipe off leaving a lustre like you have never seen on anything less than Bentley.    It's a labour of love but the results are stunning.  

Shines like a diamond

   

Polish

Comparing the old yellowed finish to the repaired and repolished leaves a stunning impression, on the next photo you can see the unpolished starboard side in the left and the polished and repaired hull on the right.  

Dull yellow vs shiny white

Next job is for me to start work on the upper blue stripe which is cracked and bruised in a few places, this needs to go through the 400 grade part of the process in order that it can be covered with vinyl wrap, this will take a bit of time but cleanliness is next to godliness as the wrap is only a few microns thick and any blemishes on the surface to which it is applied are I am assured , going to be visible. So get the elbow grease revved up, here I come .  

Quarter shined up too, beam still to cut back once cured

Today I turned up late to the boat after a morning at the house project, Phil had been at the boat since 06:30 and his back was aching and I felt very bad, but he was on the final 2000 grit polish of the hull, prior to compound and polish and it already looked amazing.   So I helped him with the compounding and polishing and promised to remove the remaining cove line and here is the result.