Josephine Needed Some Work

The priorities for this trip were clear; bottom paint, repair the 16 inch gash I put in the hull when we hip checked the committee boat at a start (we won that race anyway), check the mast for damage and repair the mast hole in the deck... it was cracked before, but I now needed to deal with it this time. Anything else I could get to would be a bonus while the boat was on the hard.
Everything started out alright, the prep work on the haul went as scheduled.
The Gel coat repair began... I'll leave this one up to the experts.
I observed the process this time and maybe I'll do the next one myself... how do they match the colors anyway?
Now, where was that gel coat fixed? The only way I could tell when I walked up was the way one spot was all polished up.
Seriously, this was a very well done job. Thanks Bill at Svendsen's... I looked around for you to thank you personally, but never found you.
Fresh bottom paint looks good, no doubt. Mike seems to think a spot was missed, but he likes to point out all the problems, make you second guess your equipment... mental edge stuff. Won't work, Mike. My boat is fast.



I wanted a light green to go with the color scheme, but what a hassle and extra cost... straight white thank you... my diver will be happy about this.
So, I went to check out those sections where there was what I thought was evidence of delamination and I was about to soak a section with Jasco when Roger Rapp who was busy working away on his mast (reason #1 to bring your Folkboat to Svendsen's) looks over my shoulder and says, "You don't want to do that." He went into a very convincing argument about why I should use a heat gun and a scrapper, then a random orbital sander. He breaks off to his jeep, comes back with all the real gear, I mean man gear, too. The real man tools. In about 3 minutes he had scraped off a section and sanded it down to bare wood. I cussed. The wood was good. Where I thought there were problems were jsut superficial. But in the process discovered that the wood had not been treated with anything, just 2 coats of paint were put on and it was coming off easy. It was almost 3 in the afternoon and I was supposed to be home by 5ish. I just went into a mediative trance and started up the heat gun and scrapper and went at it. It went relatively quick... but being 6'5" and sloutching over a hunk of wood heating and scrapping away takes it's toll. I got up to the spreaders and took out the orbital sander and hit it. It was close to 6pm and I was already in for it at home... there was still a couple hours of sunlight left... ok, here we go... all the way to the top. I didn't expect to take it down to bare wood, but with right tools, it was fun.
Found some more serious cracks up in the goose neck and I figured out a way to epoxy and clamp it... rather creative if you ask me.
a piece of scrap wood and a stir stick underneath... two clamps and a little time.
That one section with the darker wood was one of the deciding factors in covering it back up again.

After fixing the cracks and filling some holes and a little sanding Patrick and I got 3 coats of Smith's penetrating expoxy resin on it. A coat of primer and two top coats later the mast was ready to be rigged up again.
Top sides polished, mast hole repaired, pressure washed the teak, light sand... what's this on the stern?
There is only one person who would dare tape this sign to my boat... Mike Goebel! Every year he pulls this shit. It's funny really... but check the standing from last year, who's boat is slow?