Above: John & Mick start the important preparation work by cleaning and then sanding back the green holding coat.
Left: John starts to apply primer to any areas of bare steel.
Once the steel work has been primed and sanded an undercoat or pre-coat is applied, which is the white paint in this photo. This is allowed to dry overnight and then also sanded before the final top coats are applied. Here John is applying the cream anti-slip surface to the masked areas on the cabin roof – once this is dry the whole roof will be coated with two further coats of cream International paint.
Mick removing the masking tape forming the anti slip areas. The white/green undercoat areas will be painted the same cream colour as the anti-slip surfacing.
The cabin sides are treated in the same way (without the anti slip paint obviously!). The blue and cream here are the is the final top coat – apparently the key to the glossy paintwork is all in the preparation as well as sanding down or ‘Knocking Back’ the paint between each coat. The amount of coats applied depends upon the type of paint and the colour of the undercoat. So far Aqua Vita has had a zinc primer, the holding coat (thoroughly sanded) a layer of undercoat and two top coats. The fine white line (if you look closely) between the blue and cream is masking tape, marking out the location for the bright red coach line.
All the major jobs on the inside of the boat are complete, I’ve now got a long list of ‘small’ jobs to sort out!
Above: The rear cabin will have a small entertainment system in addition to the TV, DVD and stereo in the main saloon area. As well as being a CD radio the unit also contains a small 7″ TV screen with DVD and built in Freeview. The idea being that the bedroom can double up as an additional living space for kids. The unit will sit on the shelf in the photo which is why I’ve installed the 240v socket and brought through the aerial and speaker cables. The two small black panels are the controls for the inverter (top), which converts 12v battery power into 240v mains power, and the one below is the on/off switch for the diesel central heating.
Last week I spent the weekend away from Aqua Vita as I needed to take H3O down to
Shobnall Boat Services in Burton upon Trent for some repair work. During the hire season the boat had acquired a bend rudder (probably from a hirer colliding with a lock cill) which needed to checked over in their dry dock. The twisted bow doors also needed to be replaced with the new ones supplied by Colecraft late last year. Andy and Mike from SBS carried out the work whilst I took the opportunity to black the hull and repaint the gunnels that had had a seasons worth of scratches!
When the dock was drained on Friday it was discovered that the damage would be difficult to repair and the rudder needed to be completely replaced. Luckily after a quick phone call to Colecraft, I was able to collect a replacement from Long Icthington first thing on Saturday morning. This was installed over the weekend together with the new doors ready for refloating on Monday. I returned the boat back to Kings Bromley Marina last Thursday after the gale force winds had subsided and she handled like a dream once again – so many thanks to Andy and his team.
Left: H3O with new doors installed, paintwork applied and rudder fitted ready for the new hire season to begin!
