Kelly Peterson 44 Refit

[Fidu666]

What followed after moving on very smooth and nicely was just a clusterf*** of setbacks and problems. All of which were beyond our control.

Problem Number 1: Our paintjob failed. After doing a bunch of tests we figured that the Totalboat Wetedge one part paint was sprayed on too thickly by the yard. We have read of a bunch of people who had problems with the paint when used to thickly. We had to sand all the paint off. And we mean ALL OF IT. For the second time.











Problem Number 2: Our chainplates arrived and were a complete fail. To make 100% sure that there would be absolute ZERO chance of problems, we shipped our old stainless chainplates to the manufacturer of our new Titanium chainplates. What we got back was a complete mess. The new chainplates were too long, too short, too thick and too thin. The holes for the bolts were all over the place. After an angry phonecall with the (very helpful and friendly) manufacturer, we got our money back and decided to work with what we have, which seemed possible in our opinion. Better to have free Titanium chainplates than none, right?









Problem Number 3: Our new water tank arrived and was a FAIL! Also here - not our fault. We have sent the manufacturer a complete powerpoint presentation with all the information they could have possibly asked for. Still, some fittings were installed 180° on the wrong side of the tank. At least we could try out if our calculations for the installations worked out - which they did. After a (very angry this time) e-mail to the manufacturer, that had the guts to blame us for the problems they sent us a second tank free of charge, with the fittings in the right position this time.









Those were tough times... But what should we do? We pushed through the problems and persevered. Read all about it on our blog.

[Fidu666]

After all the setbacks we had a couple of Cervezas and just kept on pushing. We didn't really have another choice, right?

So off we went, painted the mast and started putting it back together.

Repainting the mast


Things were slowly but surely coming back together


We inspected and/or replaced every single bolt, every screw every fitting on the mast. Wherever possible, we insulated fittings from the mast by putting insulation tape in between, as can be seen here with the connection of our radar frame.


We also inspected, cleaned and painted the mast step.


Using cut plates from our old stainless water tanks, we had a new mast head made that had enough space for the mast head light, windex and new wireless wind indicator...


...painted it...




...and did a dry fit with all the gear. Looking good!


We also had a firm talk back with the company that failed to reproduce our old chainplates in Titanium, altough they had them in their hands. How that is possible? We cannot say.

In the end, we decided to make us of the new chainplates and make the boat fit to them, instead the other way around. At least the company gave them to us for free, so there's that. A whole lot of epoxying old bolt holes shut, drilling new ones and fitting the chainplates and back plates followed.¨







But we got it done.

[markxengineerin]

Well, the chainplates look very nicely made, too bad they were the wrong size and caused extra work. What grade titanium did you choose?

[Fidu666]

Originally Posted by markxengineerin

Well, the chainplates look very nicely made, too bad they were the wrong size and caused extra work. What grade titanium did you choose?

Yeah they turned out really nice apart from all the issues. The company uses Aerospace Grade 5 Titanium (Ti 6AL-4AV).

[markxengineerin]

Cool, same thing I used, they've been good to me so far. I also went with titanium bolts, but it looks like yours are not exposed to any salt water. The bolts ended up costing me more than the plates themselves because I got the material cheap from someone else's scrap.

[Fidu666]

Originally Posted by markxengineerin

Cool, same thing I used, they've been good to me so far. I also went with titanium bolts, but it looks like yours are not exposed to any salt water. The bolts ended up costing me more than the plates themselves because I got the material cheap from someone else's scrap.

Yeah, the bolts sit at the elbows below deck. Same here, we were astonished by the prices of bolts of bigger size.

[Fidu666]

Next up we were in for some more sanding. Thankfully due to the non-adhering topcoat and one-part primer a couple of days of elbow grease in we were ready for another coat of primer.







A couple of days later we were ready for yet another couple of coats of primer. This time we went with two-part Alexseal. First up were three coats of Alexseal Super-Build 302.

Totalboat paint will never touch any spot on our hull again. To this day we haven't figured out exactly what the problem was.

Totalboat Customer Service was no help at all. It seemed they did not really want to deal with the issue and just refunded us the money for the paint.







And as it always is, there was some more sanding in between after fairing out the last little bits and blips. To perfect the sanding process and have the smoothest surface possible, we used Mirka Dry Guide Coat. It's a black powder you apply to the paint and sand off. As its name says it "guides" you to see where you have already sanded and points out indentations in the hull for you. Great stuff! 100% recommeded!





After two coats of Alexseal Finish Primer 442 and three coats of Alexseal Premium Topcoat 501 we were finally done (again). We had high expectation for a product like Alexseal, and the result was stunning.

[AKA-None]

Really sweet looking despite the setbacks

[Fidu666]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

Really sweet looking despite the setbacks

Thanks! Almost two years later and being exposed to the blazing Mexican UV, saltwater, wind and sand she's as shiny as ever.

It's worth investing in good paint. We can 100% recommend Alexseal paint.