600 miles, and we are still in Austin
Over the last 10 days we’ve made 10 trips to Austin Yacht Club. AYC is 30 miles from our house, so that is 600 miles. Oof. That’s a lot of time sitting in the car/truck.
The good news is that we absolutely killed it. Boat hauled, emergency rudder installed, bottom stripped, bottom painted, bottom sanded, boat derigged, boat is home!
The emergency rudder seems to be the real deal. It’s almost as big as our primary rudder!
In case the J/80’s we race against were wondering why we point so well. That’s a J/80 next to us and the bottom of our keel is closer to the ground. It’s all in the keel, baby!
Really happy with how the bottom turned out. The hull is Baltoplate sanded to 800 grit and then burnished with bronze wool. For a roll job it is amazing. Without exaggeration, we could see our reflection in the hull. If we are slow, we can’t blame the bottom! The keel and rudder are epaint ZO HP. At first, I was a little disappointed because it didn’t go on as smooth as I’d hoped, but it went on quite thick. A few hours of wet sanding with 400 then 800 grit and it turned out quite nice.
You may have noticed the keel and rudder are orange. Already had the first person asked me why. And my answer is “why not?” It is orange because we can. 🙂
And now Spadefoot is home for one week before we head to Cali. This week will be all about washing inside and out, finishing the dodger, finishing the canvas pocket, and loading everything for the big trip out west.
Not familiar with the coating you used. Have you considered a teflon spray with an antibiotic additive? May not be green but you have a small ship and could be sprayed over what you have.
Chuck – thanks for the note. The green part is pretty important to us, so the options we researched all started there. That said, we hoped to put on E paint on the hull (not just the rudder and keel), but couldn’t get the color we wanted in time, so we compromised with a more typical racing bottom paint. We don’t drysail the boat much, so we had to come up with a more permanent option. It’s always a compromise!
Looking Great!!
Love the orange keel and rudder. Wow sanding with 800 grit on the bottom. Never heard of that. Should be slickery!
Super cool!! I have to admit, just looking at her screams speed to me! You’ll probably get incredible mileage just driving to CA given the low drag ratio. Now you’re sure the boat won’t be arriving before you? That would be…well….awkward! Well, let’s get this show on the road and see you Chris on the 29th.