Lat/Long: 44.918701, -75.835843

In September 2019 I had Santosha’s bottom stripped by a contractor using a high pressure waterjet “sandblaster” – but the blasting media was tiny glass beads, not sand. This blasting media is much more environmentally friendly and safer for everyone involved. You can follow this link to read about the glass blasting job: CLICK HERE

I stored the boat over the winter inside a covered shed at Aylings Boatyard in Merrickville. The covered storage allowed the boat hull to thoroughly dry out before beginning the the next phase of this project.

My plan was to have Jay, my fiberglass contractor refurbish the bottom in the spring of 2020 and then launch the boat and go cruising on the Trent-Severn Waterway for the summer. Unfortunately, Covid-19 significantly got in the way of those plans!

Santosha remained in storage for the summer and in late August Jay began to refurbish the bottom. While I was sad to not be able to go cruising this past summer it was a benefit to the boat hull to have a few more months to dry out.

Jay began by grinding out all of the spots where small osmosis blisters were evident. This was a cosmetic problem to be fixed – there was no damage to the integrity of the hull.

Once the grinding work was completed all spots to be repaired were rinsed with acetone and filled with a waterproof epoxy filler product that is designed especially for use below the waterline.

After this work was completed the entire hull was sanded and inspected for any small spots that had been missed as well as any “pinholes” and low spots that showed up after sanding. This entire process was repeated two more times. It takes a lot of labour and is very time consuming.

The hull was rinsed again with acetone and then sprayed with a thick layer of gelcoat. The gelcoat was allowed to cure for several days. Then another inspection for any remaining pinholes which were subsequently filled and sanded.

Finally we were beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel! Easy for me to say – I was not the one who was doing all of the filling and sanding! Jay and his assistant had that lovely job.

After all of this prep work the entire hull below the waterline was lightly sanded, rinsed with more acetone and then four coats of Interlux epoxy barrier coat were applied – one a day over four days.

Each application was an alternating colour (grey, white, grey, white) so it was easy to see where the coverage was needed for each coat.

Once the final epoxy barrier coat was cured the hull was lightly sanded and then Jay applied 3 coats of light blue antifouling paint. The job was then “topped off” by a new dark blue bootstripe along the waterline.

I am very happy with the end result and I am sure that Jay and his assistant are happy that this epic job is done – especially the sanding part!