Alberg 30 Refit: Bottom paint removal, starboard side & a Couple of Young Cruisers

It's been really hot here the last few weeks. Humidity has accompanied the heat, and heat indexes have been well over 100 for several days now. Regardless, today I just could no longer stand not getting anything done on the boat. I suited up when I got home and started the starboard side.

I am happy to report that this side of the boat's gelcoat seems to be in much better shape. You can see that the blue gelcoat extends much further down the hull and there does not seem to be as many blemishes. What a relief!

Armed with the scraper, I got to scraping.

A little elbow grease, sweat and determination was all that was needed!

Heat and paint scraping aside, I met some like-minded cruisers yesterday. After finishing my shift on the ferry I noticed this salty-looking cruiser had pulled into the free docks in Portsmouth. I had to go over and talk to the crew. I was immediately greeted by two friendly cruisers, Andy and Anna, who were sailing their sturdy Mariner 31, Jumble. They were headed to New England from San Diego, CA. They invited me aboard (I was curious to see their stove arrangement), and I could have chatted with them all night. We exchanged blog info and I snapped this photo before heading home. Follow them at www.jumbleventures.blogspot.com

Fair winds Guys!!! 

Alberg 30 Refit: Bottom paint removal continued and hull blisters

This evening I finished up the nasty dirty paint removal task on the port side of the hull. During the last few months I have been pretty busy with work, family and other projects and I was becoming frustrated and worried that the refit would never progress. I had piddled around here and there but no major tasks were getting done. Fortunately, this has changed. I made it a priority to get this refit rolling.

I had been using a 6" sander to remove the paint. That thing made all kinds of dust. It removed the paint but was a bear to use. I decided to try scraping a majority of the paint. This turned out to be a great decision. In about 4 hours time I had scraped almost the entire side. 

After scraping a majority of the paint, sanding with a 5" Bosch orbital sander made getting to the gelcoat quite easy. Another 4 hours and I had 2/3 of the port side hull down to the gelcoat.

Working away at little bit at a time, I put in 2 hours last night.

Using the trailer as a bench and stool has come in quite handy.

Another angle of the sanded hull

Here's where the bad news starts. My Alberg is full of blisters (water intrusion), This is a good example of one. From what I can tell this is not a new problem and one that someone tried to repair long ago...about 6 layers of bottom paint ago to be exact, so maybe 20 years ago....who knows???

You can see the hull issues better in this photo. That discolored area which extends all the way to the stern seemed to be some severe crazing, and is full of blisters

The red dots appear to be old blisters that were filled and the other dots are new blisters. 

As you can see from the pictures I am making progress. I seemed to have opened a can of worms here on the hull. I surely want to fix the issues as best I can, but I also want to be sensible about the repair. I am devising a plan now to use West System epoxy for the repairs, and until then I'll be sanding the starboard side. More to follow!