Nauticat 52 Refit

[cpa]

Originally Posted by Panope

Beautiful, painstaking work.

Just one question: how much sandpaper has this project consumed (you can give your answer in acres if that is easier)?

Steve

LOL

[minaret]

Originally Posted by Panope

Beautiful, painstaking work.

Just one question: how much sandpaper has this project consumed (you can give your answer in acres if that is easier)?

Steve

Acres, hectares, square miles; definitely. From 36 to 2000, the whole boat.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by minaret

Foredeck/chain locker gutter fairing. You can do chin ups on that gutter.

OK, I'll bite.
Beautiful workmanship, but where does the rainwater get OUT of the gutter?

[minaret]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

OK, I'll bite.
Beautiful workmanship, but where does the rainwater get OUT of the gutter?

A drain gets installed in the corner either side, with hose to the original through hull drain.

[senormechanico]

I figured it hadn't yet been done, but still...

[minaret]

Aft deck laid out for gelcoat. Normally I'd use the blind waterway method, ie no layout, but in this case it saved a lot of color matched gel to do it this way.

[minaret]

Gel just shot.

[minaret]

Dry guide coat is applied and wet sanding begins.

[minaret]

Here you can clearly see how the guide coat shows up the (substantial) peel in the gel, and exactly where you have and haven't sanded. We are starting with 800 grit wet by hand, and 1000 dry (vacuum extracted) on the DA; because I had an excess of it, we used that rather than starting with 800. Goes almost as fast, ie very fast. The guide coat also shows you when you have sanded all the peel out, so you know exactly when to stop sanding without going too far. It's fairly idiot proof.

[minaret]

The 3M finishing sponge. The blue 800-1000 grit sponge is great for radii and fillets at the 1000 stage as well. But I always finish with the green sponge wet, that's 1500-1800 grit.It's like magic, the surface is already glossy before you even begin to polish. Totally cheating.

[minaret]

First stage of polishing. 3M Microfinishing Compound, what they have now rebranded as their "Gelcoat Polishing" system.

[minaret]

Then Farecla.

[minaret]

Layout and prep for non-skid. Dry guide coat is reapplied between every grit, and at every prep stage, to ensure not a single square mm is missed, ever. 800 grit scratches look like 80 grit when you sponge finishing, you know exactly how much to sand. Mini buffers are used for tight areas, and 3M Hand Glaze is used in areas too tight even for them.

[minaret]

First coat of Awlgrip Whisper Grey. First coat is sprayed neat, with fast reducer (T0001) and Procure 138. This cause it to dry fast and cure much harder.

[minaret]

Second coat is sprayed with Griptex. This is 50/50 mix of fine and coarse. Also with fast reducer and accelerator.