July

Abby's birthday was the 3rd and I'm not so good with presents. Most who know me say it's because I'm cheap and that may well be true and the reason in the past. Over the last 6-8 years, however I have been seeing less and less value of all the "stuff" that clutters our lives. I just checked and I still have a $200 gift card from LL Bean from my birthday in 2006. I check their catalog every once in a while, but never find anything I fancy. Perhaps if they begin selling epoxy?

As luck would have it, I found a reasonably good deal on a pair of Harken 32 Self Tailing Winches. These are new "old stock" Italian made Harkens with all metal internals. With new manufacturing "techniques"/chinese plastic parts the price of new winches has come down quite a bit in the last 5 years. They're still pricey and most people don't seem to realize that the prices have dropped as I often see 10-20 year old winches selling on Ebay for close to what new ones can be had for. In my opinion, used (especially tatty chrome) winches really make a home built boat look cheap. Also, the older winches have a larger diameter base which means that a future upgrade would result in much hole filling and new backing plates, etc.

I could have bought some used non self tailers for around $100 each that would have worked; but hey, it's my wifes birthday.

The best birthday present?? Abby did protest somewhat, but then I reminded her how long our friend Carolyn Goodlander had to wait for Fatty to buy her a nice pair of self tailers. (Correct answer is around 50 years) So, that logic won the day and Lily had a great time inspecting them with Dad to make sure all the bits were included in the "good deal" She even got a good bit of grease on her after this picture was taken.
See you in August. Need to demo the concrete apron around the patio to move the first hull outside!

Testing

Haven't gotten much real work done since the sole bearers. Got real hot here and everywhere else it seems and got back finishing the Searunner painting.
That got me in the mindset of thinking about paint (again) and wasting lots of time looking at various paint options. The marine surplus got in several 5 gallons buckets of Hempel 55210 which is like an Awlgrip, but intended for large ships and barges. Not quite as high a gloss and easier to apply. They only hitch was that the hardener they had was a different number than spec'd by Hempel. Not much Hempel is sold in the US and Hempel US told another purchaser this hardener would "unofficially" work fine. I talked with this guy a bit and gave it some thought and decided to go for it. For $40 a gallon hard to go wrong unless it all peels off of course.
I decided to do a few samples this afternoon on the bow of my Trac 14 catamaran and the side of my old Boston Whaler. The stuff is amazing! Specs are thinning no more than 5% with special thinner which I didn't have. So in 90 degree weather and spotty overhead sun, I rolled some on with a 4" foam roller. Here are the results:

Hard to photograph well, but laid out totally smooth with a slight roller stipple. I'm sure would tip out fine, but the slight texture is OK with me and will help distract from the 100s of hours of fairing I'm not planning to do. This section was tinted with RAKA gray epoxy pigment to see how it holds up. The other bow deck is the plain white. These will be outside for the next year or so prior to me painting the VARDO. The vertical sections on the Whaler hulls turned out real well also and will be good do see how it wears against the slipway docks.