MOTHER OF ALL HAUL OUTS - Part 1
Living in Shrink-Wrapped Splendor

Many people have the idea that the cruising life is one continuous stream of pleasure, parties, travel, adventure. Well, HA-HA-HA. Certainly there are elements of all that in our way of life, else why bother. But we work darn hard to achieve those moments. Right now we are involved in one of those "darn hard" phases. We've been at it for quite some time, and it looks like it will stretch out a good while longer. SUNFLOWER is hauled out for a MAJOR refit and face lift.

	The bubbles on the bottom.

When SUNFLOWER was 10 years old the bubbles on the hull had started to become a nuisance. Osmosis was a word flying around in all the sailing magazines. We saw some awful examples of osmosis in the boatyards and felt we better attack our case of pox too. That was 1986. The boat wintered over in a big boat shed in Holland, which gave us a perfect opportunity to grind down, dry out and give the hull a good epoxy barrier in the spring. SUNFLOWER was built one-off and has no gel coat. It was just the polyester filling compound that the builders had used for fairing the hull that had caused the blistering. Our glass was in perfect order.

The last time we hauled the boat out for a bottom job (2002) the number of bubbles and spots and ugly things on the hull were on the march again. They were much more prominent, and seemed to have increased in number and in size. So here we are--18 years since the last "fix"; there was no getting around the fact that another hull operation was necessary. And then of course, there was this year's clash of the keel with the Andaman Rock!

The factors prompting us to go beyond just dealing with getting the hull treated properly are numerous and quite varied, but boiled down into a few logical parameters:

1. We couldn't really go sailing anywhere effectively with our hull the way it was.
2. We had no big plans for this year, so we had the time.
3. There are good haul-out facilities in this area.
4. Thailand has good workers; they are experienced with epoxy treatment, and the products are available locally.
5. If we were going to have to sit in a boat yard for several months while the hull dried out, we might as well consider tackling other major projects.

And that's how we got started into doing EVERYTHING ELSE.

Whaddaya mean "everything else"? Well, here's how it goes...

The cockpit was looking pretty tatty. The cabin top definitely needed a repaint as well as a renewal of the nonskid surface on its top. The white areas of deck trim that we had labored so hard over and painted just 3 years ago, had not held up well at all. That was Sterling paint; wonderful stuff to work with; it's very expensive paint, and it shouldn't degrade that easily, even in the tropical sun. Then, the entire nonskid surface of the deck could use a coat of paint too. So that's the whole of the deck, cabin top, and cockpit for overhaul.

Our tent. Note side-mounted solar panels.

Next--the mast and boom. The mast had to come off so we could fix a problem with the mast support below decks. If the mast and boom are off the boat, you might as well refinish them while you're at it. Last painted in Feb., 1998--again Sterling paint. Again it did not hold up well and chalked out.

So mast and boom, entire deck, the underwater hull. Well, that just leaves the topsides. We had painted them last in Guam--10 years ago. They still looked bright and shiny. In fact, many people commented that they thought we had just had a new paint job. This paint is Imron 2 part, made by DuPont and used by a lot of car painters. The topsides had evidence of 10 years of cruising bruising, as well as many small bubbles right at the waterline under the paint. Nobody seemed to notice them but us. This paint is really hard and has stood up well. We would not even have considered a repaint if we were just doing a normal haul out and antifoul job. But with everything else being renewed, could we not do the topsides? No.

We have always done all our own work during a haul out. This time the volume of work was just too intimidating to contemplate doing it ourselves. With the complexities of all the jobs to deal with, we decided we were better off to contract out the work. I must admit, at first it was really strange not to be busting our butts from dawn to dusk with heavy-duty boat work. But our backs sure appreciated it!

First, a crane came and lifted the mast off the deck. The workers then built a big tent over the boat. I call it a tent, but it is more like a canvas roof. This has really been helpful in that this is the rainy season in Thailand. The roof, and other assorted wind breaks, drapes, shrouds, curtains and shade cloth work wonders in keeping SUNFLOWER dry and the work progressing. They also help to keep the dust down--somewhat.

	Shrink-wrapped boat equipment in the rafters of our tent

The workers are very careful about overspray from neighboring boat projects in the yard. Right after the mast came off there was a lot of gear laying around on our deck. One morning the crew arrived with masking tape and big rolls of shrink-wrap in hand. They shrink-wrapped the mainsail. They shrink-wrapped the rolled up awning. The life raft was shrink-wrapped. They shrink-wrapped the spinnaker pole, the boat hook, the awning spreader pole, the fender board, even a few pieces of wood! The radar reflector was shrink-wrapped. Ditto the steering wheel. They shrink-wrapped the bow pulpit, the life lines, the stanchions, the radar arch, the life sling, the man-overboard pole. I was afraid if I stood still very long they would even shrink-wrap me!

When it came time to work on the deck, all of the shrink-wrapped items had to be moved--somewhere. The answer was to hang the stuff up in the support beams of the tent. This worked well to keep all that gear out of the way. Except--some of it is low enough to be merciless head bumpers.

When the sun shone at certain angles all the shrink-wrap sparkled like cut glass. It looked quite elegant to have "crystal" covered boat equipment! Now that we are beginning our third month of this haul out, the crystal has lost its sheen. The dust and overspray from our projects, as well as the general boat yard contaminants, has filmed over the shrink-wrap. We are very glad the workers took the time to cover it all up.