The Boat

The better half and I spent most of the week at the Best Western in Saugatuck while coating the bottom of ye old Inspiration with three coats of VC17M, applying a dab of epoxy and talking with slip manager John at Tower Marine.  On Tuesday evening Brian was so kind as to re-open the storage building so we could get to the boat and the slip ladder.  After retrieving it, we went to slip 42 and installed the ladder.  To our great consternation, we found the water even lower than we left it last year.  Considering we were 8″ into the silt last Fall we were alarmed.  A quick meeting was arranged with Manager John the following morning and it was promised that the slip would either be dredged or we would be moved to a deeper slip on the center dock, west side.  We were relieved.

Wednesday morning and without the usual panic, we casually removed the gear from the truck and carried it into the heated storage building.  The setting up the lights and equipment (lots of protective poly tarp on the nearby boats) was without incident and the application of the VC17M proceeded with a 6″ foam roller using the vertical pattern.  Painting day 1 ended without incident and we had time to go back to the hotel before dinner at SBC.  We used one quart of VC17M.

Day 2 was a repeat of day 1 except horizontal pattern was used.  It looked pretty good by the end of the day.  Yours truly applied a little quick set epoxy to the aft vertical  portion of the rudder to fill in the little nick we caused at the end of the season when we removed the boat.  This area got special attention and about 5 coats were applied.

Day 3 started off OK but ended with testy verbosity as is to be expected with three days of hard work.  All equipment was loaded into the truck after the third coat of “the brew” and final inspection and log book entry. We were finished by 1330 hrs and went down to Oval Beach for lunch which was really good while we watched the empty but calm sea.  I drove to US-131 S rest area near Kalamazoo and then SAM took over and I immediately too a nap.  We got back to home around 1730 and re-introduced ourselves to the comforts of home.