Sal and I started painting the boat a few days ago. Always fun. The best part is that the dogs are not throwing up anymore. I know, yippeee, right? The worst part, truly, is that three hours of work is about all we can put in right now (plus over an hour in driving time). It is not that it is so hard but it is awkward. The boat is only a few feet off the ground. So we lay on the ground and paint overhead. Sal does pretty good, being a yogi and all. I kind of just lay like a log and try to roll along.
Mind you, I went topsides yesterday and put a first coat on the port side. Deep green. Semi-gloss. Sal was finishing the bottom paint (one more layer today) and that colour is flat black. It all looks good.
There is the deck and roof to do soon. There is the last coat of bottom paint and the last coat for the topsides (hull). The two colours are an off white and a deep green.
This boat is already proving interesting. It is in a yard where maybe three people go a week. Maybe as many as five. But we’ve had two visitors from our island and several locals from the area come by for a closer look. Today a couple of fishermen (coming to get their boat) stopped and talked ‘wooden’ boats. Every time we have been there to work on it, someone drops in and talks about how ‘really nice’ she is. Today’s boats-of-envy are heavy-duty aluminum with big engines. Some are upwards of $200K but all of them are very expensive. No one even looks at the $100K boat parked across from us. Everyone, it seems, comes to see our ‘old-style wooden folly’ but they are very complimentary and they are sincere. All to Mike’s credit and Atkins design.
There is a tendency with this little cutie to think ‘Bristol fashion’ (a yachtie term for making your boat sparkle). That means everything is clean, fresh paint everywhere and all the brightwork bright. But varnishing a boat up here is absolutely verboten and considered garish and, probably, ignorant (“Ya can’t keep a yacht out here, man!”). REAL boats up here look like hell but the engine is perfect. To drive around with a ‘tiddly’ vessel is to invite scorn and abuse. The preferred ‘look’ is old, dented, broken and lashed here and there with duct tape and a cheap tarp. We can ‘effect’ that look all too easily. It’s ‘natural’, local and unpretentious. Still, if you purposefully dress down, that, too, is pretentious.
Sometimes you just have to let your beauty out to play, ya know?
Our Off the Grid Home 
As one of the locals who dropped by (2 days in a row, no less), I can fairly say the pics to not do it justice. A great boat, a great choice for the intended use, and Dave and Sal are doing a wonderful job getting her ready to be put in service.
And no, I am not saying that just because I got to share some simple, but excellent, sandwiches prepared by Sal. Oh, and even some brownies that deserve special mention. And no again, there was no scotch, but there was work to be done.
And did I mention visits with Daisy and Gus? An enthusiastic duo. Well-suited, I think, to their new home and to mummy and daddy (Dave and Sal will get that reference).
LikeLike
RJukan is ‘over the top’ on this. Sal and the dogs were NOT that good. The brownies were, tho. And I lay on paint like Matisse but we were not THAT good. Well, OK….we’re pretty good…..and the dogs are really, really good …….for puppies. Sal? Well, Sal is Sal and they just do not come any better. Me? As one of Sal’s friends describes me, ‘you are adequate.’
And I’ll take that. From her, that is the highest compliment a man can get. Thank you, Rjukan.
LikeLike
What a beautiful boat! This one dresses up really nice. You have my vote. A very good purchase. Congratulations.
LikeLike
Thankyou.
LikeLike
I agree sometimes the dressing really does matter. It seems your boat is in a class all by itself.
LikeLike
Definitely in a class by herself out here, anyway. But, at 20-22 feet, it is a ‘useful’ class and being pretty is just a nice bonus.
LikeLike
Will you add an anti-growth paint to the bottom as well Dave?
LikeLike
Adding the fourth coat today. Two ‘base coats’ are already on and today will be the second ‘sluff coat’. We use Micron CSC and it is an ablative. As you travel it slowly sluffs off and takes the growth with it. Sluff coats go on thick.
LikeLike
I love the colour, it reminds me a bit of the Old English Racing Green (so Sal picked the color??). She really is a beauty! I can’t imagine why someone would spend 200K on an aluminium boat if you can buy this wooden beauty for much less. Glad to her that the dogs are not throwing up any more, that will make trips fun (again). You will send some pics of her maiden voyage, will you?
LikeLike
Oh yeah, more pics to come as we get her further along and, of course, when she is launched. Actually Sal did not pick the colour, Mike did. He had already put on a swath of the colour but then painted it a base coat – dull blue – but there was a full can of green that came with the boat. One liter. Two might have been better but one is looking like enough for the two first coats. Maybe a third someday….
LikeLike
My favourite Colour for a boat. Looks great.
LikeLike
Thank, GM.
LikeLike
looks great!
Do the dogs have any green on them?
LikeLike
No green but Gus managed to get some flat black undercoat on him. How in hell Sal saw that on his coat is a mystery but there was a patch about the size of a loonie. The sides and bottom are now done. Only topsides and a few equipment installs before launch.
LikeLike
Nice.
Well done.
Hopefully the weather will be co operative for launch day.
It’s been a long Winter and a crappy Spring so far.
LikeLike
Winter: long and crappy, for sure. And that is talking about HERE (wife is gorgeous, dogs are perfect, life is wonderful and the Orcas are returning!) I wonder how the Ukrainians would describe it…? For that matter, I wonder how Putin would describe it. Can you imagine living in North Korea this winter (no avocados for sure)? Moldova? Can you imagine being as stupid as a Trumpeter? Every year your trailer and your meth stash is blown away by a tornado!
Seriously, dawg….we have it better than 99.99% of the world and you even have extra money! Young, healthy, good-lookin’ and rich. They might even do a reality series on TV about you. Yes. I’ll be the host.
Forgive me: all you really need is to get on a ferry, drive a bit and be fed nice meals while drinking your own scotch. THEN it will all seem considerably less crappy. Trust me.
LikeLike
hahahha
True enough but when you’re working outside in this crap day in and day out… its crap!
As for a visit to the land of puppies and prepared meals….
Two thumbs up!
I’m thinking there might be some union strikes where we work in the next few months.
It might allow me some time off for a few days.
Fingers crossed.
LikeLike
Looking GOOD, David!
LikeLike
Presumably you are referring to me? Or is it the boat? Oh, never mind, I know. It’s the puppies and the boat, isn’t it?
LikeLike