It is nice to be finished with composite work and working on the systems.  Deck hardware is close to complete and will be in the next blog post.  We have a few custom items that will greatly improve the shorthanded sailing. This post is about the water ballast plumbing.  KISS is the way I like to keep things on board and the water ballast plumbing is nice and simple.  There are 2” hose running from the tanks to the three separate manifolds that can be removed for adjustment or repair.  The pump is Rule 3800 GPH, which will fill the…

The only job I have not tackled with my teammate Jim Anderson is the bottom.  Why do the bottom when you are in one of the best bottom shops in the country.  So Waterline Systems took on the bottom. First the bottom was stripped down to the outer skin since the original bond coat was peeling in a lot of spots.  This also allowed us to view the outer skin/core and do a full inspection.  Luckily my original survey was accurate and the laminate and core are in excellent condition. Then 8 coats of Interprotect 2000 were applied.  This is…

Kincora Kiwi Grip non-skid is completed.  To prep the deck took a day of sanding.  I used my Fein DA sander with 80 grit hooked up to a vacuum to keep the job clean.  With the vacuum I could see the deck surface, which was important since there was very little paint on the deck. It took a few hours to tape off the deck, which was made easier by having the hardware stripped.  As you can see the old sea hood is history and the new more efficient sleeker hood improves the boats looks, and allows access to all…

With the smooth white on deck completed and the interior ready for systems it is time to start the bottom.  Then we will do the Kiwi Grip non-skid, install some hardware and be out the door and install all the systems, yeeha. For our bottom job, Waterline Systems, LLC has a bottom crew that works their butts off and produce some of the best race bottoms in the business. At first I was thinking it would be a sand, spray, and wet sand to a glass finish.  But once we inspected it closely we could see there were areas that…

Below is painted white and the sole with Kiwi Grip non-skid.  We are very pleased with the results.  Once this was completed we taped off the interior and went to work on the deck. The new seahood is now installed and ready for non-skid.  Deck is prepped and first coat of smooth white has been painted.  This week we will do two more coats of white, then a major job painting the non-skid with grey Kiwi Grip which we think is a great product. For applying the Kiwi Grip we tried trowling on then working out the air with the…

Yeeha the painting below has begun. Aft lockers are painted, and inside the water ballast tanks.  Now there was a fun job climbing inside the ballast tanks prepping and painting.  The forward section can only be accessed through a 4” port but viewed from further aft.  So for painting I poured in the gel coat then reached in with 4 ½” brush and kept picking up more gel at the bottom and moved it around till everything felt smooth.  Went back and viewed the progress and looked for holidays and back at it.  With four tries each side the tanks…

Just about ready for paint below with just a couple of ticks left on the list, nice to be on schedule. As you can see the aft cabin is DA sanded and ready for paint as is the forepeak.  Note in the aft cabin picture in the bottom right there is two water ballast fills.  This is an idea I picked up from friend and competitor Tristan Mouligne (Quest 30 Samba) who did this for last years Bermuda 1-2.  We handled the fill/drain differently by running a glass tube from the forward section inside the aft tank to run out…

Feels good to have the jobs starting to drop off the list.  Only a few weeks left below then on to the deck. I took a few pictures of my buddy Doug Jensen from Vortex Media filming an interview with me on Kincora.  This is for my upcoming documentary that will be released after the 2013 Bermuda 1-2.  Stay tuned for short snippets over the coming season on this blog. A couple of shots of the new nav station that is very comfortable.  This added some weight to the boat as did our additional structure but with the inboard out…