On the HARD

February 2015 – Oahu, Hawaii
Haul-out at the Phoenician Boat Yard, Barbers Point. (near Ko Olina Marina)

The Phoenician, LLC

91-573 Malakole Road
Kapolei, HI 96707

We hauled INFINITY for the first time in Sept, 2012, for the pre-purchase survey, and haven’t had her out of the water since. We tend to do all our boat maintenance ourselves, including the bottom cleaning. After 7600 miles and a couple of years of necessary hard scrubbing, there wasn’t much ablative paint let on the poor girl. It was time.

easing INFINITY into the 31′ wide haul-out slip. INFINITY’s beam is 19′ 4″. Plenty of room.

the 300-Ton Travel-Lift was carefully advanced over INFINITY, taking care around the Stabilizers

Harley checking it all out

Julie checking it all out ; )

The project ended up being a ‘get out & get back in’ affair. I had the call to go back to work, so we short-scheduled for 5 days. Haul out on Monday, and launch on Friday. We had much to do. Once she was set-up on her blocks, we did a quick inspection before the pressure wash.

we looked forward to making her all ship-shape again.

It was definitely ‘time’,,,,

wait until Julie gets done with this!

I’m so glad we pulled the boat when we did

don’t see much black anti-fouling paint left?

After the pressure wash, we paid to have the hull sanded down. The Phoenician yard workers did a good job. The rest of the work-scope was tackled by Julie and myself. It’s Monday afternoon now, and we’re eager to start. Julie is prepping the whole boat, and making a start on the Props, and I address the Stabilizers & hull repairs.

I pulled the Winglets off to inspect the mechanical coonection and anode condition. Both were fine, so left all as is. (at least now, we know)

Winglets off for close inspection. All good. ABT makes an outstanding product.

These were re-installed after ensuring they were clean & fair. I used Blue Loctite on the 4 bolts, and I’ll check them again after a few sea miles.

The next 3 photos illustrate the fabrication & installation of our missing port stabilizer rope-cutter. We lost it sometime during our bash up from Cabo to San Diego.

missing cutter-base cleaned up and prepared to accept a new 316 stainless steel base plate. The exisiting screw holes were utilized.

Trial fit of the base plate. Looking good so far.

Rope-cutter blade offered up to the base plate. This was also made of 316 stainless, and welded to the base plate. A sharp edge was ground into the blade. The complete unit was 5200’d to the hull, secured by 6 screws until the 5200 had set-up.

Still Monday afternoon, and we need to tend to a couple of small epoxy jobs quickly, so we can allow time for the WEST system epoxy to set. Tuesday will be spent spot priming the boat,,, all day.

3 x 1/4″ indents into the laminate all cleaned up and ready for epoxy fill

lens-cap for scale

“I love the smell of epoxy in the morning! ” A couple of pumps on each tin + 2 spoons of filler is all it took .

On Tuesday morning, we started bright-&-early. We decided to get rid of the existing footprint of Prop-Speed. Using the air-tool we removed all, down to bare stainless steel, and recoated with Interlux Interprotect 2000. We were also priming any area of the hull that was down to gel-coat, and/or repair work. The game was on here, because the anti-fouling paint needs to be applied precisely at the correct time of primer curing. So it went for the rest of the day,,, prime a bit, anti-foul a bit, prime a bit, anti-foul abit. It was hot and it was blowing well over 2o kts, so the paint was almost drying by the time we pored it into the tray. We chased this for the whole day, and was by far, the most stressful part of the haul-out process.

,,,down to bright stainless steel. It was all in great order.

and on goes the Interprotect 2000 primer

primer went on all bare metal (except the props), in order to provide a key for the Micron 66 anti-fouling

So now it’s Wednesday morning, and time to paint the boat. We’ve had some good luck with Micron products, so we more-or-less decided to go with that – and that is also what the previous owner had Sonship in BC, roll on. I made several previous inquiries from different sources, ranging from the Nordhavn Owner’s Group to International Paint themselves. Here’s what their US Technical Rep had to say about it.

“For the optimum antifouling protection in the South Pacific waters, you may want to consider using the Micron 66 instead of the Micron Extra. It will give the best protection in the harshest fouling areas. If you intend on doing blue-water cruising only, it’s the optimal product.”

so, MICRON 66 it is!

Jay Nem, doing what she does best. (this is actually her idea of Fun)

Never a dull moment,,, three pots of paint, 3 different batch colours. (Beam-me-up-Scotty). We bought a large 5 gallon bucket and mixed all paint together to form our own INFINITY BLUE!

First coat! ah man, talk about job satisfaction. : )

On Thusrday, Julie rolled on the second coat. We sort of morphed into a rhythm as we often do, but at the end of this project, Julie had painetd the entire boat, twice, by herself. I kept her supplies up, and tended to the 101 other tasks which make up a Haul-out.

‘couple that Hauls-out together, stays together,,,, (well sometimes ; )

Harley always in on the action. Blue paint found it’s way on her too.

At the end of the day, say around 6pm, we found ourselves polishing the boot-stripe as we peeled away the painters’-tape (we had the kind loan of a hydraulic lift). I guess it was around 2am when we finished, but we were very satisfied with the result.

Friday mornig, tending to Bootstripe and through-hull revitalization. Just a few hours away from splash-time.

Julie up-a-ladder,,,, (a normally reoccurring event). I get to move the ladder

,,, attention to detail

the money shot

either end, they’re both beautiful

all smiles from Chief INFINITY care giver – you done good Jay!!!

Early afternoon on Friday, Feb 28th, INFINITY is picked up and prepped to be taken to the slipway. We had the pleasure of Mary & Larry Mason (N57 ‘No Plans’) & John Gomersall (Phoenician GM) join us for the Launch.