couture@jaws.DEC (04/23/85)
It was just beautiful this weekend. The sky was blue, the gulls were crying, several sailboats were already in Naraganssett Bay and there I was sailingsanding the bottom. Actually I did a pretty nice job. I use wet and dry paper and wet sand. It's the only way to go if you use a vinyl paint. The vinyl clogs the paper if you try to use a machine sander and the wet sanding seems to do a better job of cutting thje paint. I start out with 80 grit. This is the hard part. Then I lightly sand with 150 and then 220. At every stage I feather any places which have peeled. The result is a really smooth bottom and a minimum ovf peeling during the next season. The problem is that using wet sanding and permanent blue bottom paint, I tend to look like a smurf by the end of the day. On the positive side, wet sanding controls the dust, so you don't have to be so concerned about breathiung toxins. But the real payoff is that I can hand sand the boat (we're talking sailboat, keel and all) in one day. And I challenge anybody to put their bottom up against mine . . . uhh, let me rephrase that. I challenge anyone to come up with a smoother coating of bottom paint. Nesxt season weekend it's time to oil the interior teak and one more coat of McGuiars on the hull. See you on the water in about three weeks. Skipper, Another Summer