It got HOT yesterday with more HOT for today and yes, I’ll take a good dose of humidity with that heat please. In fact, everyone got to leave at lunchtime – except for me, of course — the only one who actually wanted to leave. And then there was John who thought he and I should work all evening after being conspicuously absent all day.  Not going to happen today though!

We got the primer sanded on the cabin top of the 42 yesterday and will be rolling on the top coat this morning. I was misinformed or they changed their minds but in any event they are going to use white paint instead of the Moon Dust. We would normally use Grand Banks white but as they get older and the gelcoat loses it’s color nothing actually matches off a color chart so we are just going to use some stock white paint. The inside of the bow thruster tube is all glassed in now. The tubes from Imtra are now a bit smaller in OD than they used to be – don’t know if was a cost cutting measure or whether they thought the old tubes were overkill. Consequently our hole is a few centimeters larger than we normally cut. This in no way effects the installation — it will be just as strong as if the hole were tight. We started out the day washing John’s two sail boats — maybe there are plans for them? We also made progress on the power pedestal installation at the dock yesterday. I like to learn something every day and what I learned yesterday is that concrete dries faster if you watch it and if 3 people are watching it, it dries three times faster. We had a customer who wanted a price on his transom. There were two options – either strip and hard sand and build back up to 8 coats or more. The scratches are down into the teak so it will take a lot of sanding. There was not a whole lot of difference cost-wise between recoating and removing — which will mean a lot less maintenance in the future. I am sending him an estimate today. A comment from a reader (regarding yesterday’s post): Alan–I look at your blog often. Today I noticed your remarks on the Navy 44 waterline. The waterline was never raised. The trim marks were a “nice to have” thing but eventually got covered up over the years of bottom painting. This past winter I stripped all 19 (?) windows on my GB 36 than primed twice and brushed Alwgrip two coats on the frames. Actually, as I was “pondering” while doing all this nonsense, I decided to Awlgrip the frames and the cabin sides–just to keep things interesting. I’ll have to send pictures Jim Anything Can Happen Friday If you are in Europe (a lot of you seem to be), you will appreciate the Interactive Canal Map.