Driving my boat down a gravel road for a quick bottom job....

 

August 23: I had an opportunity (weather and time) to get my boat into a nice DIY-friendly boat yard in ME for a week. The fee they charge covers pulling, cleaning, launching, and two months in the yard.... And this was the morning we had arranged to pull the boat. 

Every time I've pulled the boat to date has used a travel lift, a big crane that lowers slings under the boat and lifts it. The only part of the machinery that gets wet is the tremendously strong cloth sling...but the machine requires a level surface. That changed today as they used a completely different sort of machine, one that can handle rather steep hills...

First, I climbed aboard the boat and motored it up to the submerged machine and gently nosed into place, then kept it in place with gentle forward propeller while they gripped it with the hydraulic arms. Then I turned off the engine as they pulled me out, a cable helping pull them and my 30.000 lbs up the ramp...

Once up off the ramp and on reasonable roads, they disconnected the cable and motored through the woods to the boat yard.

There, they installed jack stands, pressure washed the bottom, and left me to work. 

After my repairs in FL in early 2020, I had planned on pulling and painting in the next year, but one things leads to another and I forgot that I had only put on a single coat of bottom paint over a significant area, leading to some serious crusty growth on that area. Whoops! So, I was eager to take care of this and had two gallons of paint, figuring I would give the bare area at least three coats and the rest at least one, as well as spraying the propeller with zinc and giving it some other protection. 

I spent hours preparing the bottom, a job made harder by the fact that the yard well pump was failing and I had just a trickle of water to work with: OK for pressure washing, but not enough for hand washing the boat. Still, patience did the trick.

I planned to take days, but the sun was hot and the area I needed to paint most dried fast, so I painted it twice in a couple hours, then did a third coat over the whole boat, the whole thing still releasing fumes, but dry by nightfall. I walked Monty, then fell exhausted into my bed.

Morning came with heavy fog. I moved the jack stands (first boat yard where they allow this!), scrubbed those bits, dried them off, and painted them. The yard launch schedule was open, so they agreed to launch me! ONE day and splash! 

Anyway, a very satisfactory job, even if pricy on a per diem basis.

Observant folks may have noticed the nice bottom paint as the boat is being put into the yard. This is because those pics are actually the boat being launched since I was on board for the pulling and couldn't take those pics. Same views, just a nicer bottom...