Home from the Yard, at Last!

[Angela]

It was a very frustrating 11 days at the yard for a couple of reasons. First, I hate being without Sanctuary which is why I never go away anywhere unless it involves my boat and I just take her with me. Second, I went in expecting a quick two day turn around by just getting the bottom painted. Well, we all know that rarely happens, but this time, I had fully believed that was the way it was going to be. $21,000 and 11 days later, we're home.

"Just a bottom job, please" turned into replacing 6 cutlass bearings, repair of all of the shafts, balancing of the props, replacement of the mains' seacocks, removal of ER strainers, installation of scoop strainers, acid wash of the hull, polishing the hull. We didn't get to replacing the swim platform brackets, but I can do that on a short haul later. We were anxious to get out of the yard by Friday because a 3-day river/bridge closure is starting on Monday.

In order to get to the back of the transmission to remove the shaft on the starboard engine, the large fiberglass exhaust tube had to come off....more labor dollars to the bill.

Last night, my first night back on my boat, I slept 11.5 hours and it felt good. For days, I've been restless all night constantly thinking about that yard bill. It's over and done, and I finally got to sleep.

[Angela]

A few more.

[Robby]

So you thought what?"Two days and 3K?I'm glad your home and the boat looks great!!Robby

[Angela]

So you thought what? Two days and 3K?

Yep. Silly me!

[ppat324]

2K per day?? Thats a cake walk! The SANCTUARY on the bow looks good! Was that painted or other? ws

[Angela]

2K per day?? Thats a cake walk! The SANCTUARY on the bow looks good! Was that painted or other? ws

It's vinyl lettering...turned out way too small. As a commercial vessel, I'm supposed to have the name on each side of the bow. When I put the first one on, I realized how far undersized it was and didn't put the other one on. I need to have the name cut again in a larger size, just haven't gotten around to that yet.

[Sparky1]

Sorry to hear they got that deeply into your purse there Ang, but she sure does look great!

[ThirdHatt]

Congrats! I know it feels good to get the underwater items lined off your list. What bottom paint did you end up choosing? I had similar barnacle growth to what you had on your bottom all over my running gear because I did not let the yard paint that in 2007, but for the first time I tried the highly recommended Petit Trinidad S/R (slime resistant) on the bottom. When we hauled last month for survey it was after about 20 months in the water, and there was zero fouling on the hull bottom but the running gear was completely covered with barnacles. I am now a firm believer in Trinidad S/R, and painting the running gear. Now you can test out your top speed again knowing that your bottom is clean and the props are balanced!

It sounds like a large portion of your bill was labor. I know that around here skilled mechanics labor and yard labor both tend to run $70/hr. Out of curiouslty, what is the going rate in FL these days, is it still around $85/hr? I seem to recall FL rates at about 15-20% higher than Louisiana the last time I hauled in south FL back in 2005.

The hull shine is simply FANTASTIC! You MUST be pleased with the outcome! Don't even think about the bill any longer, it's just a few weekend charters to offset. Just look at your reflection in the hull shine and nothing else will matter!

[Trojan]

Nice pictures. Your boat Looks like a Million bucks. Now you can eat, sleep, travel, party and rest at ease, knowing the hull and drive line is good for many years to come. Again Angela, your home (boat)looks great. Worth every penny.

BILL

[Angela]

We used Micron CSC 3.5 years ago, and again this time around. We were really pleased with the results from the first time, even though we were way overdue for new paint.

When we hauled out, the yard owner, Joe, said that due to the barnacle growth, we were going to require extra sanding beyond what was originally quoted. After they scraped (and the barnacles came off easily), Joe looked at it again and was surprised how well the paint had held and advised us that it was not going to be necessary to incur additional sanding labor afterall. When we discussed paints with Joe, he mentioned Trinidad and how popular it was, but felt the Micron did just as well and that it was a lot less expensive. I have no experience with the Trinidad, but I can say that we do like the Micron paint we've been using, so we stayed with what we knew worked well for us.

Now, if I'll just be diligent about hauling out once a year or once every 1.5 years for a single coat of paint, perhaps I can avoid all this in the future, but you can see why I'm still a little gun shy of the yard!