Refit on the Hard
One of our prettiest moments on the hard in Cecina
In April 2023, our Vaquita was out of the water for a month - at least that's the plan. We soon realize that the phrase "Whatever time you calculate for boat work - double it!" also applies to our project. But let's start from the beginning...
New antifouling: Coppercoat
We want to sand the underwater hull and paint it with a new, more environmentally friendly antifouling. The antifouling is intended to prevent growth (algae, barnacles, etc.) on the hull, which would slow us down in the water. Our old antifouling consists of a toxic paint that slowly peels off and with it the growth. We opted for Coppercoat, which - as the name suggests - consists of solid copper and epoxy resin. The copper forms copper oxide with oxygen, which in turn prevents fouling without unnecessarily poisoning the sea.
First we scrape off the old black antifouling before sanding the entire hull. This is exhausting work, as we have to do a lot of sanding upside down .On day 3 we can already feel the sore muscles in our arms, shoulders and back. At the beginning we don't know exactly how much sanding we have to do, because there are several layers of primer under the antifouling. First we sand away the gray layer up to the first white layer (gelcoat) and our Italian dry dock friend just shakes his head and tells us that we should stop sanding at the gray layer (later we find out that this is epoxy primer, which protects the boat from osmosis). We discover the inscription "N°24" - our hull number - on the hull near the rudder on the gray layer. We are now certain that the gray layer was applied by the shipyard and are happy to discover the 25-year-old lettering.
Replacing our through-hulls and seacocks
While we're sanding and repainting everything, we also want to replace all of the old through-hulls and seacocks. These are all the saltwater inlets and drains that go through the hull. We are switching to high-quality plastic through-hulls as they are not as susceptible to hairline cracks as those made of brass. So let's get out the grinder and out with the old through-hulls. Then it's just a case of sealing everything and putting in the new ones - sounds quick and easy, but the new seacocks for shutting off the diffusers are a lot bigger and therefore harder to fit into the small spaces at some places. But after a bit of thinking, dry fitting and a lot of sealant, we managed it - hopefully everything will be water tight later!
More sanding
During sanding, we discover some unevenness in the hull or small bubbles (fortunately no osmosis!) and we decide to sand them out a little further and fill them back up using epoxy filler. Of course, we then have to sand everything again to make it nice and smooth. In mid-April, we paint the first two coats of primer together with my dad - a step in the right direction! Next weekend, after sanding again, we'll continue with the next two coats.
We lowered the rudder blade a little to paint it and noticed that the 20 cm high aluminum sleeve at the lower end of the rudder stock was corroded. The rudder manufacturer puts us in touch with rigger Antonio, who looks at the problem and orders the replacement part for us.
Painting Coppercoat
Unfortunately, the weather in Italy is not very stabel in April and we can't find a good weather window to paint the Coopercoat. We need at least 4 days without rain, as the epoxy resin dries very slowly. Fortunately, we also have a few other jobs to do: we install an electric bilge pump, repair the electric anchor winch, service the winches, install a new speedometer and echo sounder, replace the toilet pump seals and hoses, fair and paint the doors of the bathroom cabinets, install our new VHF radio and do many other small jobs.
At the end of April, the weather is finally right and the two of us paint almost 7 coats of Coppercoat in 9 hours without a break. Between coats, we had to keep mixing the epoxy with 1 kg of copper powder. We finally finished after a hard day!
Activating Coppercoat
After everything has dried, the coppercoat still has to be activated - sounds simple, but it means that we have to sand the entire hull smooth to expose the copper particles, which can then oxidize with the oxygen in the air. This takes a few days despite support. After that, the boat has to be moved so that the areas under the supports can be sanded down and painted with primer and coppercoat. We also take the opportunity to completely dismantle the rudder and remove the old sleeve.
We also paint the red Najad strip, as the color is already a bit faded.
Endspurt
It is getting increaslingly stressful, as we don't know for sure when exactly a crane appointment will be possible in the few days we have left until our journey home. In a cloak-and-dagger operation, my dad and Peter fetch the new sleeve for the rudder from Marina di Pisa and glue it to the rudder stock at midnight in order to keep the crane appointment the next day.
Vaquita is finally going back into the water at the end of May! It took us twice as long as originally planned and we travelled back and forth between Vienna and Cecina countless times, as we also had to keep up with our paid jobs in between. It was an exhausting time and we often lost our motivation, but we made it and learned a lot!
Thanks to all the helpers who came all the way to Italy! We couldn't have done it without you! It's great to have such supportive family and friends - thank you Dean, Romana, Papa, Julia, Max, Lena and Raphi ❤️l
Useful Tips:
Marina to work on your own on Italy’s westcoast: We only found Marina Cecina
Coppercoat:
To remove old antifouling, be sure to get a scraper with a good vacum cleaner and a powerful sander.
Remove old paint down to the two-component epoxy primer or gelcoat. If you are unsure whether the primer on the boat is a two-component primer, use strong solvents such as isopropanol and see if it dissolves. If in doubt, remove it.
Don’t paint your Saildrive with Coppercoat or we wouldn’t recommend anything out of aluminium painted with it. Coppercoat says you can do it, but if there is one part where there is contact it will lead to really bad galvanic corrosion potentially killing what is painted with it.
When working with paints and epoxy, cleanliness is extremely important. Get plenty of dust cloths and isopropanol and use them to clean everything thoroughly and regularly.
Be careful with the primer; most primers need to evaporate, so you have to wait about a week after applying the primer before you can apply Coppercoat. Hempel thick-film primer is solvent-free and does not need to be left to dry, meaning you can apply Coppercoat immediately afterwards (once it has dried, of course).
For our 10 m boat, applying Coppercoat was a 9-hour job for two people without a break (except for a short toilet break). It is advisable to have three people. Don't forget to stir the liquid Coppercoat repeatedly so that the copper is well distributed.
Sanding/activating the Coppercoat was one of the most tedious tasks for us. On the internet, you can find that it should be sanded almost completely smooth, preferably with 400 grit sandpaper. With 400-grit sandpaper, we would not have been finished in three years. We sanded our Coppercoat extremely smooth as described. To do this, we bought high-quality (expensive) 120-grit sandpaper and carefully sanded the roughest areas smooth. Then we carefully sanded the rest with finer sandpaper. Was that necessary? We don't think so. We have seen other boats that did not do this so thoroughly and did not have any major problems with it, especially in the Mediterranean. After three years, you can now see on our boat that we have lost a lot of Coppercoat in places due to the extreme sanding.
Conclusion on Coppercoat: It is not a miracle antifouling. You still have to scrub off the growth in the water from time to time, but that's no different for other long-distance sailors with normal antifouling. The big advantage is that you don't have to repaint with new antifouling for a long time. Whether this justifies the initial extra effort involved in preparing the underwater hull depends on several factors. For example: Do I own the boat for a long time, so do I benefit from the long service life of Coppercoat? Do I have to remove the old layers of antifouling anyway? In any case, when calculating the cost-benefit ratio, you should not take into account the fact that you have to crane the boat much less often. There are always other jobs to be done, especially on the saildrive or the shaft or other parts, and you actually crane the boat out at least every two years anyway.