The Finishers! May 17, 2009

Notice the gleam on the starboard hull and the fresh bottom paint!

Keith Otto, Bill Paviol and daughter Sarah Paviol came to Sandusky on Saturday evening and worked all day Sunday to complete the work needed to get Kelly IV ready to splash!

Keith removed the starboard side adhesive left from the removed boot stripe, then washed, waxed, and buffed the lower starboard topsides to match the gleaming work from Jack vanArsdale the week before.  Keith had a high standard to match, but he was more than up to it as Kelly IV now glows from all sides!

Sarah took to the woodwork like the old hand she is and applied teak oil to all the cockpit wood, leaving the wood (and there is a lot as it surrounds the entire cockpit!) in beautiful and functional shape to serve the crew all summer.  Actually a lot of work executed very well by a diligent and beautiful 11 year old!

Bill added serious sanding efforts as he sanded the entire area below the waterline that had previously be hidden by the boot stripe.  In fact, his sanding was made especially challenging because it was his sanding effort that removed the boot stripe that is now below the waterline!  The area Bill attacked with his whirring power tool nearly surrounded the boat!

The new dodger, photo by Bill

The above finished everything needed for launching Kelly IV for the 2009 season! 

The entire team then picked up rollers and brushes to apply 3 coats of bottom paint to all the needed areas.  Last year, you may recall that we sanded the entire bottom, painted the first coat blue, then added 2 more coats of black bottom paint.  The idea is to make it easy to see where new bottom paint is needed.  If any blue is showing, then we add bottom paint there.  By changing the water line, we had to paint the newly sanded area as well as the blue spots that showed here and there around the hull.  Bill, Sarah and Keith located all the blue spots, sanded then painted them blue again.  As the blue paint dried, we followed with first one coat of black, then as that dried we added the 3rd coat of black bottom paint.

BTW, I had completed the new dodger on Saturday so Keith, Bill, Sarah and I celebrated by playing several hands of Gin Rummy.  As usual, Sarah beat the three adults handily!

The new dodger means no more wet t-shirt contests while beating to windward!  :-)