So, well anyway, I figured I'd post some updates as to what I've been up to lately. After spending every minute of my free time working on the boat for all of late september and october, I fished november and december while Raybo did the paint work on the Sea Craft.
I was also busy with winterizing the Grady and the usual holiday stuff. The past few weeks I made some headway on the SeaCraft. Since the Grady spends her winter in the main garage I purchased a 10*20 shelter from Pep Boys for $ 179 bucks and I think it was an incredible deal. The shelter is great and becuase its a rather dark sandy color it when its sunny out it stays about 50-10 degrees warmer inside. So thats where the Sea Craft lives now.
I cleaned up the bottom and sanded it smooth. I then painted the bottom with a black conventional bottom paint and topcoated that with 2 coats of Petit blue Hydrocoat ablative paint. I know I'm going to get flogged for bottom painting, but keep in mind guys, the boat will live in the water from mid March til mid-December. It might come out of the water if I take her on a trip somewhere, but other then that, 9 out of 12 months she will spend wet.
I don't have a good bottom paint picture, I'll take one tomorrow, but you guys get the idea. BTW the boat was just washed in this picture so, thats why the bottom looks streaked.
I also did the non-skid. Originally I was going to use Durabak, but after doing quite a bit of research I decided against it. It seems like there's a 50/50 split between people who like it and those who don't. I didn't want to take a chance so I bought some Awlgrip Moondust and griptex. The deck was already primed to all I did to prep was lightly sand it and wipe it down. First I rolled on a base boat of Awlgrip, then I sprinkled the grip tex onto the wet paint. Let it dry and the next day I vacumed off the excess griptex and top-coated with more awlgrip. It came out great, I think its a good mix of texture being that it has plenty of "non-skid" but still not too rough to catch too much dirt and become hard to clean.
BTW, like I said before, the pics were taken just after washing the boat, so thats what the water is doing all over.
Anyway, I figured I'd post something worthwhile. Here's one of the Grady in her garage. I have to get cracking on her to splash. New thru-hull fittings all around and some new wiring.
