I broke out my new sea breathe hooka system and dove on the boat with Darrin yesterday. It is such an awesome tool. It provides two regulators, and an unlimited about of air to work on the bottom. I have so much more boat under the water I won’t be able to go down and clean the bottom in an hour anymore. My prop had an inch, to two inches of solid barnacles on it. It will be nice to be moving full time and maintaining Splendid’s bottom.
Another cool toy I got was the Magellan GSC100 communicator. There is a link to the last place selling them on the site. They used to cost a few thousand dollars, but you can buy the last batch of them for $395.00. I know a lot of sailors who swear by these things. Basically it’s a self contained (no computer needed) email communicator with a GPS. Service is under $40.00 a month and they work anywhere in the world. I think this is the cheapest means of email communication at sea that I know of. I usually use my satellite phone, but that is about $1.50 a minute. I’ve never used one but I’m looking forward to having this as a backup.
Half of Splendid’s decks are chipped and have clean bare fiberglass decks. It was a bunch of extra work, but this really is the way to go. Darrin also started glassing up the cabin house. We will start faring it today. I can’t wait to get the first layer of paint on the boat!!! People tell me I can get a spray gun, hose, and a water filter and spray my boat using a SCUBA tank. If anyone knows about this please post a comment or send me an email.
Projects, Projects, projects, my mast steps came the other day and I’ll be installing them soon.
We’ll be moving down to
Peace, Love, and Coconuts.
– Alex
This sounds like a good idea and a reasonable alternative until ‘things’ work themselves out.
Have a great new year.
Take care, give love,
Can you just rent an airless sprayer from lowes or home depot? I know you can rent them cheap.. but do they work with the type of paint you are using is the question?
I sprayed plenty of houses with them and I sprayed a van once with one… I’ve used both petroleum based paints and latex with them..
I just don’t know much about marine paint… The home depot people will surely say not to, but they will never know as long as you clean it out :p
I dont think most people will know this blog is here, because its not on the front page….
Happy New Year to you and yours.
Looking forward to more logs until I can join you on the water.
David
S/V Sweet Mercy
(On the hard and landlocked in the frozen tundra of Northern Minnesota)
Alex..How about adding a spot for people looking to crew .or wanting crew
We could do a crew blog. Why dont you start a thread in the forms section???
Unfortunately i’m told I cant use an airless sprayer for mothane. And to do it properly I’d need a really big compressor, thats why I’m thinking the dive tank is a good idea.
Hi Alex, …We use a 5 HP (continuous output) compressor, with 100 gallon tank charged to 120 PSI and we use HVLP paint guns (high volume low pressure). We spray all kinds of paints and primers. Even with a 100 gallon tank and low pressure gun, the compressor will cycle several times when painting a car. I am not sure how anyone could spray a boat with a dive tank. Are you sure your source is talking about the dive tank itself or the compressor that fills the dive tanks ? With a dive tank alone, you would have to refill the tank over and over endlessly which would consume far too much time and create many other problems. Something does not sound right here ? Many factors will effect your final result when spraying (paint type, primer vs top coats, temperature, humidity, wind, sunlight, airbourne debris, spray technique, spray pattern, air pressure/volume and so on). Can you find out more details about the “dive tank” method you mention ? With any spray technique, make sure to “test” spray on scrap material first.
BRANDON DYER, LEMANS PROTOTYPES.
To spray a boat you need to keep a “wet edge” all the way through a coat, so sufficient air pressure and volumn will be needed at all times, unless you can pick a point at which to stop and recharge your cylinder. I don`t think that I would do it like this! I would hire a decent (proper painting) compressor ( with moisture filters etc) for a couple of days, after all it will only take a few of hours to spray the whole boat with the correct preparation and equipment. may be go to a paint shop and watch how they do it and ask questions you never know, they might offer to do it for you if you prepare it? Rob
A dive tank has around 3500lbs of compressed air, and I think will last a while? The guy I spoke to in Panama had done 2 coats of his 38′ boat with one tank. A dive tank has a lot more compressed air then a paint compressor tank. I would also put a water filter in line. The problem I have is expense. I’ll need to paint sections as I want, and don’t want to do a long term rental, and buying a 100 gallon compressor & tank isn’t really an option. I wouldn’t mind having a 30 gallon compressed air system on board for tools, but I don’t think it would be sufficient for painting??? After all this I may just end up rolling & tipping.
– Alex
The scuba tank sounds like a good idea, they hold a lot more air than any typical compressor tank and you could always round up a few of them. With that said I don’t see why you couldn’t use an airless sprayer, people use them with Awlgrip and I doubt Mothane is that different. Who told you it wouldn’t work?
Cheers, Dave
Alex,
Scuba tank is 80 cubic feet at 3500 psi, you need steady continuous 8-12 cubic feet/minute at 100-110 psi and a properly adjusted gun to get the paint to atomize properlyl, lay down and flash right. It’s not that hard and you do not need a high quality gun to do it. The $40 one at Walmart/Lowes will work just fine. Having the kind where the gun is separate from the tank is preferable to the one where the two are fixed together and is much better for flat work, the tank will drip when tilted, I promise, which is not a problem if the work is vertical but a big problem if you are aiming the gun at a horzontal surface. Mothane, I’ve used it several times on my whaler, is a great alternative to Sterling/Awlgrip but it will not flash and give that gloss anywhere near the same so spraying will not yield substantially better results than roll/tip. It is also nowhere near as hard and tough a finish.
My 2cents, roll and tip. Much easier, much cheaper, not much masking and from over three feet away you wont be able to tell the difference. and with mothane you will be repainting sooner, particularly on wear surfaces like the deck. The bottom of my whaler is scuffed up enough to see the primer in places in a single season, you will be on your decks every day. Buy extra and touch up frequently.
Good luck and go sailing.
FYI Wayward Angel had a fantastic sail from Ft Myers to Isla to Belize to Guatemala where the boat is now. I came back home to work for a while but am heading back in April.
And contrats on your new family, you were overdue for some stabilizing influences. ;)
HEA
Also the airless guns, I would think, throw out way way too much paint, even the small ones. They are made for thicker paints, your mothane, when mixed will be just a little thicker than water.
HEA
Also the airless guns, I would think, throw out way way too much paint, even the small ones. They are made for thicker paints, your mothane, when mixed will be just a little thicker than water.
HEA
HEA, Thanks.
I’ll make sure to bring extra paint for touch ups. I’m planning on mixing it with nonskid as well. The mothane will still be al ot better then the one part poly, right?
After putting on the epoxy with a roller, I’m good with the roll/tip idea.
Cheers.
Alex
FWIW, roll/tip is gonna be a lot more efficient and greener just because it’ll result in more paint on the boat and less in the air per gal used:)
Tony
Hey Alex, know anyone who needs a bunch of MD11 parts? :)
I agree with the roll and tip idea… If you’re going to be spraying out on a mooring (or out anywhere really) you could run into some serious over-spray issues. It would require a lot more prep work just to keep things under control and looking good.
I once accidently speckled the side of my contractors brand spanking new truck with KILLZ! from about 30 yards away while cleaning out an airless :)
Not to mention, its the cheapest and most portable method.
You really won’t be too worried about that ‘yacht finish’ once you get down south a little ways :)
Tony, man thanks for all the help in the past years with the md11 parts. I don’t know anyone who has one anymore.
dnice, your right, I’m not so concerned with a “yacht” finish.
cheers
Alex