- Nov 2012 - LL Arrives in KC.
- Dec 2012 - LL Goes into Underground Storage.
- Repairs made to the cover, new sail bag and replaced bungee.
- Jan 2013 - LL Gets an Marine Survey done and inspected by Kansas State Fish and Games.
- May/June - 2013 LL Getting a new bottom paint job done.
- 2014 - Extensive repairs made, addressed all issues in the Marine Survey.
- Stem and keelson fixed.
- Main sail repaired by KC Sailing LLC.
This is the detailed account of Ken Cox (retired from Chris-Craft) about dealing with putting on a bottom paint:
"Brought the boat to the house and checked water content and record. I set it in a very sunny hot spot to aid in drying, I re-measured again in 3 days to see if it was drying better in the sun, was getting slow progress. I sealed and skirted the bow and placed a de-humidifier inside the skirt, got some progress. Decided to go ahead and strip some of the glass in the remaining areas that weren't wanting to dry very rapidly. I again skirted the bow and ran the de-humidifier for a week, numbers were getting much better. Then I did the same on the stern for about the same number of days. I had a couple of spots that were up in the lower 50% range and many in the 20+ range.
While all of this was going on I discovered that the rudder was rubbing on the keel, I made the keel shoe for lack of a better nautical term from starboard plywood, the bushing is just under 1" in diameter and 1/2 thick. It pressed it very snugly, the keel shoe was made from the same material and attached with 5 screws, drilled and snugged.
Some where in her I did remove the fittings from the port and s/board wooden spars, I sanded them and then coated with 5 coats of Cetol, sanding between coats 2 & 4 with 400grt wet/dry, I did sand wet. I let it dry 24 hours between each coat. So this was another of those little jobs that actually took more time to stir the Cetol than to apply almost and certainly would have taken more time to drive to the north shop than do it.
When I felt the hull was about at dry as it was going to get, I then started the soaking up process with CPES epoxy, it is designed to soak up into the pours of the wood, kill the bacteria and then harden, this takes about 3 days per cycle. I continued this for about 5 cycles maybe 6, but when it seemed that it would absorb no more I stopped and let it cure for I think it was 7 days. The meter showed a slight increase in % but this was due to the CPES not being fully cured and the numbers came back down a few days later.
The next process was to start recovering and protecting with Gudegeon Bros. West Systems epoxy. I painted a coat and let it cure for 24 hours, then solvent washed and any areas that needed some cloth I cut the cloth to size and then wetted the surface, applied the cloth, smoothed it and wetted it out fully. Again I let it dry for about 3 days, then removed the amine blush with solvent and did a light sand and finally did an epoxy only coat for fairness and final finish.
Now bear in mind that I raised the boat off of the bunks, about 8" into the air to have room to work under the keel and areas that were a tight fit to the trailer. That's another reason I did this part at the house so I could look out the window and monitor the placement of the boat to insure it did not keel over or get moved around by a storm and the fact that many times I did maybe an hours work to make a change and I can barely drive to the north shop and back in that time. I did drop it back down a couple of times due to high winds and storms. So it is hard to give a full picture of all of the things needed to be done, some I didn't even record or track time, they just had to be done.
I then dropped it back down on the trailer and took it to the paint shop up north. With the boat outside I sanded from the waterline to the keel and under. All areas under the keel had to be done my hand, not machine due to the limited space. Here it was inside and I could lift it and leave it with out being worried about it shifting and all of that. I lifted it and did the keel area with the gray epoxy, I shifted it twice to be able to paint where the temporary bunks were moved to paint under them. Also shifting the temporary bunks. Once the keel underside was done I lowered it back down on the trailer and moved outside and re-raised it about 6" to do the final painting as I need the inside for a gel coat paint job. I put 7 coats under the keel boards and up the sides about a foot. After moving it outside I did another 7 coats from the sides of the keel up to the water line. While it was outside and before the final drop I took the photo's for your review. Then made the final drop.
Some where in here, I tightened the water intake fittings and prior to painting caulked them with 3M 4200, it is a semi-permanent sealer. I did leave the foam gaskets in there, while I don't think they stopped much they did prove a valuable backing plate for the caulk and they did seem to tighten up OK.
We also started to remove the water tank doors, but stopped when we felt we would mess up more than we could potentially fix."
- July 2013 - Minor repairs underway.
2014
Re-installed baffle-wall, starboard rear. Remounted inside bilge pump and tap screws into the solid epoxy so it can't leak. Sanded and faired four spots filled, did a final coat of epoxy and faired again. Raised the front area, sanded, glassed and then coated all repairs with gray epoxy. Put four more coats of Cetol on the stem. Reinstalled the hatch cover inside over the water tank.
Main sail stitched and repaired by KC Sailing, LLC.