It's Shuch A Simple Task . . . .

SHIP'S LOG:

The cap rail/toe rail, which runs around edge of the deck, need some repairs. There were any number of gouges and splits in the wood , which after 34 years, was beginning to show its age. Then again, it hasn't received a lot of care and its deterioration was to be expected. Thus it was that I traversed the cap rail, digging out rot and split wood and filling in with wood fiber filler. One whole 6 inch section had to be removed and replaced with a new piece of teak I got from friend Skip. I had to glue two 6 inch pieces together to make one piece wide enough from the toe rail and then "scarf" it in place. Then the whole rail had to be sanded after the repairs were stained and then covered with three coats of varnish. It has taken 5 days!

5 Days? Yup! all of the work had to be done from a ladder and the largest space I could tackle at a time was about 4 feet. This meant that I had to go up the ladder, do the needed repairs, descend the ladder, move the ladder 4 feet, go up the ladder, do the necessary repairs, descend the ladder, move the ladder 4 feet and repeat until I had gone around the entire circumference of the 39foot ABISHAG, approximately 40 times. Then do it again for the sanding. Then Do it again for the first coat of varnish, and again for the second and again for the third.

The whole process had to be repeated for the painting of the cove stripe, the contrasting color that tops the hull just below the toe rail. On ABISHAG it is a white stripe atop the dark blue hull. This stripe had to be sanded and then wiped down with thinner and then painted. The paint used has the consistency of honey and, while you can thin it if you are careful, drips of white on a dark hull are to be most seriously avoided. Again it was the up the ladder, do the prep, descend the ladder, move it 4 feet and repeat. The up the ladder, paint, descend the ladder, move the ladder and repeat. The process yesterday took 5 hours to complete. To make it even more fun, the hull is not flat and some times it has more than a bit of a curve to it. So it is that at times, the ladder doesn't lay flush to the hull and square to the ground and one has to go up and down and stand and work on a ladder that wobbly. No a lot of fun with an open can of very expensive paint in one had and a brush in another.

When you look at spring maintenance in that light you can understand why most boaters scrimp on the maintenance and others, aside from the bottom painting, say "The hell with it" and just launch. But as the old FRAM oil filter commercial use to say, "You can pay me now, or pay me later," you either do the work now, out of the water where it is much easier, or you will end up doing some of it on the water where it is definitely harder, or going to a shipyard to have a pro do it which is definitely more expensive. AH, The Fun Of Boat Ownership!