We have a large crack in the bottom of the starboard hull. It runs longitudinally from the engine room door to the entrance of the aft cabin. Honestly, it looks worse than it actually is, as Shayne had already repaired the hull from the outside when we did our first major upgrades in Valencia so there is no risk of water ingress or us sinking. It does, however, need to be fixed. Hauling out this time in Barcelona we have managed to place the blocks in just the wrong spot so the upsupported weight is now making the crack open up on the inside. We moved the blocks in the last episode so that the aft section of the hull had some more support and in this episode we are going to fix that crack on the inside.
To fix that crack we need first to sand and prep the area, then fill it with a cabosil/resin mix. Then we will laminate 2 layers of 600gram DB eglass cloth with the polyester resin. Paikea is made from eglass and polyester resin so we use the same materials to make the repair. No need for peel ply as we will flow coat to match what is already in the bilge.
While Shayne and I are working on the damaged hull, Ayden, Harry and Olly are taking on the momentous task of removing the old antifouling from the hulls of Paikea. It’s hard work but it will save us a lot of time if they can at least the barnacles and some of the paint off before Shayne and I get started there. We will take the paint right back to the undercoat and add a layer of epoxy primer as we have started to see some blistering in the hulls.
Plenty happening in true youngbarnacles form ….. and all of this stuffed into a couple of days off from America’s Cup work obliglations. So while Shayne is tired and not up to talking much, I’ll just stick some music up there and you can all follow along!