Removing Yacht Paint - Tools & Method

In the absence of anything to report in respect of actual progress this week, I thought that I would spend a little time looking at the various stripping methods that we have employed and how they worked.

First, lets talk about the topsides of the yacht.

Nitromos

The lazy mans approach and pretty useless. Touched the top coat of paint but that was about it. Messy and horrible to use, I can't say that I would recommend it. It's OK for varnish in my experience but lousy in this application.

Heat Gun & Scraper

Heat gun was definitely the way to go. The key seem to be the type of scraper to use. Overall the winner for met at least had to be the two handed type of scraper. I found that by heating patches approximately 10cm in length along the planks, I could make fairly quick progress. I would estimate around two days overall to do a fair job of removing topside paints.

Not so easy the anti fouling. Bren and I took different approaches and I favour Brenden's way. His approach appeared to basically centre around using a hammer and chisel and steadily chipping away by cutting into the anti foul approximately 1cm or so behind the edge line. Mixed with a few other hammer and chisel methods, he seemed to get marginally faster results.

I took the awful method which was to use a heat gun and one of the single handed flexible scrapers. The smell of burning anti foul is dreadful and it really needs a very good mask to do it. I found the method fairly slow.

Whilst Bren's method gets it off fairly fast, it doesn't leave the overall finish quite as good as the heat gun method although, a bit of time with the sander will quickly even things out.

Tried both a fairly powerful belt and mini-mouse/detail type sander. Unless you are very skilled with the belt sander as a tool I would say it is perhaps a bit vicious. The mini mouse is certainly less productive but does produce a reliable and decent quality of finish.

Slow Restoration Progress this week!

Unfortunately, we haven't got very far this week, various distractions mean that both of us haven't found any time to work on Z28.

As I have the kids this weekend and with the cold northerly blowing, I doubt I can keep them amused at the boatyard for too long either!

Thoughts do turn to the rudder. Z28's has seen better days with splits around fitting points. What can also be observed is that the existing rudder is warped a little. Z17 does have a good looking rudder on it... Will have to ask the class! Otherwise, not too difficult a job to build one.

As stripping progress carries on, I have noticed quite a big split in one of the port-side below waterline planks. Is this serious.. Will have to await Ken the Restorer's visit for his opinion. Again, this looks like damaged caused by water getting in between an epoxy finish and the wood itself. Perhaps some lessons to be garnered here in respect of the use of epoxy!

On the interior of Z28, I have noticed that there appears to be a slight split (around 4 inches) in one of the frames (starboard / forward). We haven't removed any of the paint yet so cannot tell how serious it may be (optimistically, it may only be paint splitting). When I get back to the boat, this will be one of the first jobs, to investigate what we are looking at here.

A local fisherman will be lending me a 'prop puller' next week to attempt to get the tiller fixing off the rudder shaft.

Are you interested in the Portsmouth Victory

Maybe, this blog is whetting your appetite to spend the winter restoring one of the Portsmouth Victory's. Certainly next season has much to promise with the class celebrating its 75th birthday.

A special weekend 6-7th June 2009 for the Victory and other Alfred Westmancott desings in the Solent. Racing will take place in the Eastern Solent with evening entertainment as well.

Hosted by the Royal Naval Club, Royal Albert Yacht Club and the Victory Class association.

Tiller, Stemhead Fitting and Rudder

The good news is that with some minor alterations to the stemhead, the fitting is going to work.

We still can't get the tiller fitting off the rudder shaft. Heat, WD40, and a hammer. It just won't come off. I think all we can do is persist. It will give in the end!

I think the rudder itself is going to need to be replaced. There are some fairly significant creeping cracks on it. Not too difficult a job though.

A friend is currently cutting up an old 46' yacht. Going to go and have a look at his woodpile tomorrow. Must be some good stuff to salvage!

Still stripping planks! Have really seen nothing of too much concern as yet. Where one of the planks meets the transom on the starboard side, a fair amount of wood has been lost. Whether or not it needs replacing remains to be seen. I feel that a epoxy/wood flour repair should solve it without the need to resort to more serious action. I'll chat it through with Ken when he comes down to see us.

No Wind, No Sailing. But we have a stemhead fitting.

Went to meet Nigel at 12:30 today. Unfortunately, a lack of wind left little point in going sailing today. What a shame with otherwise such glorious weather.

We have removed the stemhead fitting from Z17. The bolts holding it on have corroded making it quite tricky to remove. We got there in the end though with some judicious use of hammer and chisel!

Got to feel sorry for Portsmouth Victory Z17 as her destiny seemed doomed. It is most defnitely a serious project to restore her. Water is coming out of her almost like it would a sieve and it seems that a large number of the ribs will need to be replaced, probably planking as well. I'm sure she could be restored, but there is some effort and budget needed there!

Interested parties should contact the Portsmouth Victory Class Associaton.

Had a good look at the new grp Victory and it does look lovely. It is very authentic and the finish looks great. So this is where the barometer is set for z28 then!

So off now to make the most of the nice weather and get a bit more paint stripping in! Steadily, we getting to project milestone number 1!

Portsmouth Victory Restoration - Paint Strip - Almost there!

A good afternoon working on the boat yesterday and I'm pleased to say that I think another day's work will see Portsmouth Victory Z28 stripped. What is clear is that when the paint is initially stripped, things look a bit rough. But once the sander has been applied to the boat, things are coming up looking pretty good.

Of course we've still got the interior of the boat to do, but this paint does come off much easier than the exterior paint. The antifoul in particular is horrible to remove, turning into a sludgy, pungent mess. 

I think the idea now is to finish off the exterior, strip back the ribs and then get Ken our friendly local boat restorer down for a look. 

The good news is that this afternoon, we're going racing on a Portsmouth Victory. Nigel is taking us out on his nice new GRP Portsmouth Victory. Shame there isn't too much wind about! Bren is getting a tad nervous as he hasn't raced before... He thought we were going out for a potter!

Weather and Working Cover

The weather is turning notably chilly and I don't expect the high pressure to be around much longer so yesterday we made a start upon building a frame for a boat cover.

Using an old windsurfing mast, 3 bits of wood, a bit of rope and 3 screws, we have built a frame that will allow us to cover Portsmouth Victory, Z28 whilst being able to work on her at the same time.

We placed a piece of wood with wedges in the mast gate, attached a piece of wood to the rear of the cockpit and the windsurfing mast between them. All we need to do now is drape a tarpaulin over the top and we are covered!