Wheely Cool

My Mum and Dad gave me my birthday present tonight....f**king awesome!

How cool is that!

Have to get the boss machined to suit the helm. I'm conflicted a little; replacing the original wheel seems a bit sacrilegious. But the original wheel is a boring alloy number, and this is seriously cool!

And I'm Back...

Arrive at Auckland airport just before midnight, drive an hour to get home, sleep till midday, jet-lagged all to hell, get up and....fix the leaking shower sump pump. Welcome back to boating, James.

The Cabin Top Is Painted

Woohoo! Unseasonally warm and dry May weather made life easier for us, and we have finished painting the cabin top. Just as well, because tonight I fly out for Europe for two weeks, and when I get back I think I can be pretty sure the weather won't be so compliant.

Once we had the second coat of undercoat on it became pretty clear that a gloss white finish would be a poor choice - even with the matt undercoat the glare in direct sunlight made you flinch. So we went with the traditional blue, and I'm glad we did, as it has come up looking great.

We used a single-pack Altex enamel paint system, but for the top-coats we added their 2K additive which basically converts the paint into a two-pack cross-linked polymer, and makes the paint harder and glossier. It also made it really nice to roll on. Will definitely use the product again for other outside jobs.

And now, I give you the finished result...

Second undercoat. I think you can get a feel for the "glariness" of it.

First top coat.

Final top coat.

OK, not quite finished, we still have to varnish the handrails and reinstall the dodger etc, and I have a couple of small patches I want to touch up, but I'm ticking this one off the list!

Off to Europe, so will be silent for next few weeks.

Gas Warfare 3: The Final Crapter

The extra vent on the holding tank has worked! Pumped the tank today and no collapse of the tank at all.

Now I'll just brace myself for the next toilet-related job...

Painting At Last

We've started painting the cabin top. Got the primer and first undercoat on this weekend. We had all but decided to finish it in white, but had some concerns that it might be a bit bright and "glary", and now that we have the undercoat on we think our concerns may be well founded. So may end up going with the traditional sky blue after all.

Primer.

First undercoat.