The day the CRANE!!! arrived.

A sailboat doesn't really look like a sailboat without masts!

This was a day I had been waiting and looking forward to for a long time.

Trouble is lot can go wrong when a 60' mast is dangling in the air.

So I assembled a couple of boat yard buddies to help with the process.

First up was the mizzen, this would be the test of my spice joints. The mast needed to be picked up at the balance point. Big sigh on my part when I saw no sag at all.

It was tricky to get it vertical without damage to wind generator.

Making wiring connections at base of mizzen.

All wires connected, looks like it's gonna stay up.

Have to go up the mast to disconnect the crane.

Main mast gets picked next. It was questionable whether the crane was going to have enough lift height to get it on deck.

Barely made it.

Took 3 hrs start to finish.

No injuries, no damage, a big cheers and high fives when it was over.

Now it looks like a sailboat,

We've come along way baby.

Yup, that's Brenda up there!

We were tuning the rig the other day and Brenda volunteered.

She's a natural, no fear.

Details, details, details

With the paint work complete, on to the mariad other projects.

During the paint process, there where times when the weather simply did not co-operate and I turned to items on the list that could be accomplished in the shop. One of these was the refurbishing of the standing rigging. In all, there are 24 stainless steel wires of various sizes that make up the rig.

Each wire has a turnbuckle at the bottom attachment to enable rig tuning.

Since they are galvanized steel and showing signs of corrosion, I put them through the same 12 step process I had used on the deck.

Here they are, painted and ready when needed.

The planking on the bow sprit was also in need of replacement.

At first, I had considered using aluminum instead of wood, but finally ended up settling on the use of composit decking material because it will not decay, and will stand up to the abrasion of the anchor chain runing on it. Fortunately I found a color that matched the color scheme.

The Saga of the Masts

I may have already mentioned this, but there has been a long saga with respect to Kaian's masts.

They were not on site when I took possesion of her, they were laying in a field about 3 hrs away in Tacoma. I was having a real problem getting them. Their length at 60' for the main, presented what seemed like an insurmountable transportation issue. I couldn't find anyone to transport them, since the state had changed their rulings relative to maximum trailerable lengths. Hence they languished while I went on with other things. One day I get news that the mizzen mast had been stolen. Some crack head came along and cut it up for scrap, they probably would have taken the main except that it was so large and heavy.

After much hassle, I located a replacement missen mast in Seattle, and now made haste to get it and the original main mast in my hands.

This entailed hiring a guy with a pickup truck and a trailer, taking my trusty sawsall and procceding to cut perfectly good masts into two pieces in order to get them under the legal limit and truck them back to the yard.

What ensued was a solid month of making them fit for use.Not only did they need to be put back together into one piece, they additionally needed repainting, (read 12 steps) re-wiring, new navigation lights, spreader lights etc etc.

The replacement mizzen mast I had located, was too long, so not only did it need to be shorted, hardware for spreaders, tangs, radar and wind generator supports all needed to be fabricated from scratch.

Time, time, time, in all, it took a month to get them ready.

Mast sleeve fabricated from 6' of 6" aluminum pipe split in half.

Sleeve is then epoxy glued and 100 counter sunk screws per mast hold it together. The remaining seam is then welded, making for a union that is stronger than the rest of the mast.

Main -- 60' total length.

On to the hull finish

The existing paint on the hull had not deteriorated as badly as the deck surfaces.

I decided that I would spot prep the areas that had dents, chips and scratches, rather than completely remove all paint as I had done on the deck. The hull had been originally treated with a Zinc Chromate primer, THE best surface prep for aluminum, used on aircraft, millitary equip, etc. However, it's highly toxic, a real environmental hazard and as of last year, banned by the EPA and pulled off the shelves for consumer use. You need special permits etc. to get your hands on it, hence I wanted to save it and leave it on. Additionally it would save time and expense not having to go through what I had just done on the deck.

Spot prepping, still have to go through all the steps.

There was a big dent in the port bow, (collision with immovable object?)

Nice thing about metal boats, they may dent, but they still float.

Nice to see it getting to be all one color.

Speaking of color, we raised a few eyebrows with on lookers when it came to our choice of color scheme. We decided on grey for a number of reasons, I'll not get into here.

There are three tones of grey in the color scheme, all based on the primary color platinum grey.

We mixed in black to form a charcoal accent color for trim, and added white to get a lighter grey for the decks. We like the effect, but of course it's subjective.

We'll be leaving the transom unpainted.

I'll be polishing it up to a mirror finish, and then the boat name goes on.

A lot of wooden boats have their hulls painted and the transom left vanished natural wood.

I thought, why not do the same on Kaian, let her show off her metal.

Finally, it was time to get the anti-fouling paint on the bottom.

Roughly 6 weeks, dozens of brushes, rollers, trays, masks, gloves and in total 35 gallons of paint, thinners, primers, etc. she is finally done.

SWEEEEET !!!!!!!

We're painting!!

After spending the winter (read rainy season) completing the interior, the weather finally allowed us to get started on the exterior. Last summer I had spent weeks grinding down the deck, now we could start putting on some paint. At first you would think, how difficult can it be to paint a boat? Well it depends, aluminum is a fantastic building material for boats, strong, lightweight, and the marine version (AS TM T-5086) is very corrosion resistant to salt water.

However it does not like to have paint stuck to it.

One has to be very careful to adhere to specific steps, otherwise it will just peel off.

Just in case you ever want to do it (not likely) here it is in 12 easy steps:

Just like another 12 step program, results vary.

1. Surface prep, in this case it was grinding with 36 grit wheel.

2. Acid wash surface with mild muriatic acid solution

3. Let dry

4. Apply surface converter solution ( Alodine 1208) looks like iodine, let it react for 3-4 minutes then rinse off.

5. Let dry, proceed to next step asap, surface of aluminum is like in a way like skin, if you scratch it, it will immediately start to form a protective oxide layer.

6. Apply acid etching primer, a khaki green stinky stuff, you now have 24 hrs to cover this primer coat, otherwise next coat won't stick.

7. Apply intermediate binding coat, orange even stinkier stuff, again you now have 24 hrs to cover or next coat won't stick.

8. Apply top coat, (linear polyureathane) as many as required to get a 10 mil thickness, in this case 3 coats, again a 24hr re-coat window.

Non-skid areas on decks needed more attention:

9. Apply thick coat of final color

10. Sprinkle 36 grit coarse ground walnut shells to cover non skid areas

11. Let dry 24 hrs and vacuum off loose material

12. Apply 2 more coats of final color

Started out with a cheap Chinese grinder, lasted about 10hrs till smoke started pouring out of it. Finally picked up an industrial Dewalt unit, we got to know each other intimately. Highly recommend.

Doesn't look that big, but it's inches at a time, one day's grinding seen here.

Had to wear sunglasses, the surface was got so bright.

Timing is everything, since we're doing this outside, weather is an issue, we have to proceed in manageable sections.

I was kinda getting used to the orange/red color.

Process of putting down non-skid surface, wallnut shell coat

A little message to my crew.

It was harder than I expected to get even coverage, I used a peanut butter jar with holes poked in the lid. Varying success but uneveness is not as apparent when top coats are applied.

The result is a very aggressive traction surface. No slipping on this deck, you would also not want to spend much time with your bare skin against it since it has the consistency of asphalt singles.

Next --- it's time to start on the hull.