Short Haul 2014

Always exciting to see our yacht in the slings....

So what is a "Short Haul?" A short haul (out) means hiring a marina to lift your boat up and out of the water and then place it on the land with jack stands for a short period of time in order for you or the marina to service the yacht. Common needed yacht services are: 1. The bottom cleaned and re-painted to slow down the accumulation of barnacles and marine growth. 2. Clean and wax the top sides, the part above the water to the deck, the hull. 3. Service the propeller and the propeller shaft. 4. Clean and wax or paint the boot stripe. These are the primary services needed to be completed on a yacht once a year or every other year. For us, it has been three years since we last painted the bottom. We use a very expensive paint ($250 per gallon!) called Petit Trinidad  which has 60.5% copper mixed into the paint. The copper prevents marine life from attaching to the bottom. This is a hard paint which does not wear away into the water. We prefer this kind of paint because we do not like the idea of applying a gallon or two of paint to the bottom and then having it deliberately wear away into the water. This seems to us to be a bad idea. We like to keep our paint on the bottom!

This is the bottom with some marine growth.

With the weather being nearly perfect, we decided to haul out now and accomplish these tasks over three days. Day one, we washed and waxed the hull. The boat was thoroughly compounded and waxed by the Island Packet Yachts factory team in November, so we decided to only wax the hull this time. This took us about 5-6 hours. The yard wanted $650 to wax the boat. The next day, we painted the bottom with two gallons of Pettit Trinidad Blue paint. This is a rather quick and easy job, as long as your arms and shoulders hold up. Using a broom handle and a paint roller, you stand back and reach under the yacht to paint the keel and under belly. But, remember, the paint is 60% copper and copper is HEAVY, so your paint roller takes on the weight of about a bag of sugar. After an hour of levering this 5 lb roller up and down, spreading the paint onto the hull, you never want to see a paint roller again!

The prop with PropSpeed applied

After painting the bottom, we decided to apply a sealant to the propeller. We sanded and cleaned the blades of the propeller and then applied a two part sealant from New Zealand known as PropSpeed. Once the etching compound is coated, then you quickly apply the top clear coat to seal the surface. This product then makes the propeller so smooth and non porous that marine growth cannot attach to the surface. A clean prop saves fuel and makes the boat moyor faster. We have used this product before and it lasts easily over a year, maybe two. It is not cheap, but then again, nothing in boating is cheap.

The $5.99 boot stripe paint, it works!

The final job we completed was to sand and re-paint the boot stripe. We have had bids on doing this job for $1,000, so we have been doing it ourselves using a $5.99 can of spray paint called KRYLON FUSION. It is for plastics. Guess what, our boat is plastic, fiberglass, so it WORKS!  This will last about 3-4 years and it is so easy to do. We simply sand the boot stripe with 320 grit (400-600 would be good also) then we tape it off and wipe with denatured alcohol or lacquer thinner to clean off any wax or dirt. Dry it, dust it and then spray it. This takes about 30-45 minutes for the entire yacht. Easy, easy job.

Our final work will be the second coat of bottom paint around the waterline. The marina also has to move the jack stands which will allow us to paint the area under the pads. Then we plan to touch up some varnish and be re-launched back in the water. At this point the boat is ready to HEAD SOUTH for cruising year #4. YAHOOOOOOO!!

The marine travel lift at Haven Harbour, they do a great job

Job #1, power washing the bottom to clean off the growth
This takes one marina employee about an hour

Drive the yacht across the yard to a parking place. Total remote control

Time to get to work....Radeen jumps right in and begins the clean up

Standing on scaffolding, we use buffers to wax the hull, 

Look how shiny this 20 year old boat is now...WOW

Perspective: Our car parked under the bow of the boat.

Time to wax the other side, this side is in the sun....HOT

The prop: 17" dia x 14" pitch, Michigan Wheel, Dyna Jet....works great.
No folding prop for us. Been there, removed that...

Radeen working on painting the bottom of the keel, hard working girl.

PropSpeed product, two parts, one etches into the prop, the other seals it

A completed prop with PropSpeed and Radeen cleaning up

Thanks to Ed L.. KRYLON FUSION paint for the boot stripe
Works well and it only costs $5.99

Sand, wipe, tape, spray it....FINISHED in about an hour!

Easy to spray, easy to do

Our work space, with  thework ladder and shelf

All I can say here is....KA-CHING $$$$$

There it is, now you know all you need to know about yacht services on the hard. Haul it out, wash it, wax it, paint it, seal it, varnish it, relaunch it, .... and set sail. DONE. We were hauled out on Wed at 9am, we will be relaunching on Friday at 2-3 PM. Thank you for sailing along with us!