Painting The Hull

When we first bought Moonshadow, we hauled her out and realized we had at least 15 years of bottom paint.  So we decided to put another coat on and put her back into the water.  Three years later we decided to take Moonshadow to the British Virgin Islands.  This is where the sanding comes in.  Paul and I have sanded our previous boat to the bottom with about 20 year of bottom paint on it.  It took us about 120 hours to get it to the fiberglass!  We alone had a Jeannue 34 with a center board.  Look at Moonshadow with a modify full keel.  We thought long and hard about what whether we should do it our self or should we get her sandblasted.  We figured that it would take us at least 228 hours of sanding.  So, we decided to get her sandblasted for $980.00 and it only took three hours!  To much of our surprise Moonshadow was barrier coated.  Which saved us from the next thought of whether we should barrier coat her or not.  However, we still had to sand the water line and the cradle pads.  It took me 16 hours just to do the water line.  Paul came down and helped me with the cradle pads.  It still took us about another 10 hours to do.  We were very grateful that we choose to sand blast her.  We

recommend this to everyone now!  So, one year later, we hauled out again to put the good paint, Trinidad SR, for the islands.  This paint has a high cooper content which helps keep the barnacles and scum off the bottom.  But, of course we have to rough up the whole bottom for this to adhere properly.  Which means sanding again!!  Surprising it only took us 5 hours total, both of doing it at the same time.  We were so relieved!  Then the next day we put the Trinidad SR on.  Now we are ready TO GO!!!