September 10, 2013
33 Days to the start of the and the work is well underway. Fortunately, the boat was in excellent shape when I left France three months ago! But nevertheless, OGOC is in final preparations for race mode. The first objective was to pull the little hood off of the companionway where all of the clutches are and fix one of the solar panels. There was a dodgy bolt in there that kept catching on the panel and was threatening to rip it apart. In an effort to save the panel during the spring training, I removed it, but now the panel needs reinstating. The hood was removed….dodgy bolt knocked down to size and the hood was reinstated.
The next task is the one that everyone cringes at but I seem to love.
Sanding…..sanding…and more sanding! The bottom of the boat needs to be slick like butter. OGOC has the coolest bottom paint that sparkles up nicely. A little presanding with some 800 grit and then extra hard muscle work to burnish the bottom and she shines up like metal! The bottom is only part of the “below the waterline work”. Next up is the keel and rudders. They have had many years of different colours of bottom paint as the traditional orange fluoro paint isn’t readily available back home. Now it’s time to renew the orange and make her bright and smooth again. On goes the mask, crank up the sander and prep for paint. Then it’s that wonderful job of sanding again.
Now as everybody knows, you can’t do any work without having an office and supply shop! Here’s my work bench, the computer and my teeny little speakers playing the edge radio from back home. I think everyone else at AOS will be happy when we move the boat out of the shop so they can stop listening to the Canadian girl singing along to her music!
Diane
