New paint for the old girl

[relamb]

I thought I would share my painting experience on the CP23.  Had to make her look nice for her new owner.
Most '80s compacs have brown stripes.  This boat had a blue stripe by the previous owner, which is just Rustoleum Marine Topside enamel ($12/quart) available from Lowes in coastal areas, brushed on over the old brown.  In Indianapolis, I had to order it from Amazon. I brushed on one coat after lightly sanding the a-least-4 old coats.  The old paint was only slightly faded.  I could tell there were several coats because I had to fill and fair a couple of major gouges where I'd scraped a dock.  For this I used West Marine MarineRX epoxy putty.  They were sold out of Marine-Tex.  I had to put on at least 3 coats of paint over the new puttied and sanded area to match the old.  At the border of the painted area, there is a thin 1/4" black pinstrip covering the edge.  The old tape was scraped off (a rubber pinstripe removal wheel in a drill is awesome for this) and replaced with new pinstripe tape.  $7-$8 for a 50 foot roll at West Marine.  Somebody painted the bottom stripe and bottom paint wrong, it was not level and the blue stripe was actually under the water.  topside enamel does not make good bottom paint.  I (ok, I paid my son) sanded off the old blue stripe, and the entire bottom of the boat with a vibratory sander and 80- grit sandpaper.  The old ablative bottom paint (at least 5-7 years old) was a nasty mess, like sanding chalk.  The new stripe and bottom paint was raised up several inches on one side and at the back.  This took 3 coats of blue to cover the white gelcoat.  Doing it over again, I probably would have tried to find some kind of darker primer to put on for a first coat.
For accessing the bottom of the boat, we just removed the guide bunks and left the upright rollers.  I tied a big nylon tow strap around a tree and around the front of the keel, loosened the winch strap, and pulled the trailer forward with the boat tied to the tree.  The boat slid back on it's rollers about a foot.  When we were all done, we pushed and rocked the boat from the back, and winched it back forward and painted where the rollers had been.  We could also get between the keel rollers and paint up under the keel.
After sanding the boat, we pressure washed off all of the chalk dust, let it dry for at least a day in the sun, then wiped it again with acetone to get off any remaining stuff.  The recommendations are 3 coats of bottom paint on the waterline and leading (wear) edges of the keel and etc.  Worried that it might look odd (I can see on my other boat where coat 3 overlaps coats 1-2) I decided to do coat 3 first.  So the waterline, leading keel edges, bottom of the keel, and any completely bare spots only got the first coat.  After drying 24 hours between each, the next two coats were over the entire bottom surface.  The bottom paint was Interlux ACT ablative with slime fighter, from Defender. $128/gallon.  I only chose this paint because it was my best guess as to what was already on the boat.  You can't put a hard antifouling over an ablative, and I didn't want to have to sand the old totally away.  By the way, the boat appeared to have a gray epoxy barrier which we made sure NOT to sand through.
All in all, it took 24 labor hours, 1 quart of topside enamel, 1 gallon of bottom paint, 2 rolls of pinstripe tape, about 5 rolls of masking tape and some sandpaper, acetone, and dust masks.  I used a 6" roller on the bottom paint, and throw away foam brushes elsewhere.  Since my son was home from college, I paid him to do all of the sanding.  The project took a week total because of having to wait 24 hours between coats, and not being able to tape over wet bottom paint to do the blue paint.  The bottom was actually all done first, then the blue.  The white gelcoat had been buffed with a power buffer and 3M buffing compound, and a couple coats of wax put on last fall.
Here's a couple of pictures when completed.  Now we get to start over doing it to the Compac 27.
http://midtechv.com/4sale/CP23/pic4.jpg
http://midtechv.com/4sale/CP23/pic5.jpg

[relamb]

PS - last summer/fall all of the teak and companionway boards were scraped, then sanded of their prior finish (varnish or whatever it was).  Then 3 coats of Cetol applied.  I could tell no difference in the teak finish after it sat outside in one of the most horrible winters we've had in years.  Somebody else had asked about refinishing the rudder housing.  That black paint is regular Rustoleum gloss black, brushed over whatever the original factory finish was.   The Rustoleum has been on the rudder for at least two years as of these pictures.  The hull was not waxed when I bought the boat and was incredibly chalky.  I didn't wax it either for 4 years.  A power buffer and 3M rubbing compound took care of it with no problem.  In these pics, the hull has not been waxed since last fall, and what wax there was has been stripped with Acetone so we could repaint the blue stripes and apply pinstripe tape.

[BruceW]

Very cool! Do you remember what size tires you had for the 23 trailer? I'm going to replace my wheels and tires, looking to get smaller than 15's if I can find some with enough load capacity.

[relamb]

BruceW, I just had the trailer info out to give to the new owner, so I put the info in a new post for everyone.
http://cpyoa.geekworkshosting.com/forum/index.php?topic=7745.0
The post title is " CP23 Magic Tilt Trailer tires, axles, bearing specifications"

[brackish]

Very nice!  I've got that coming up and am not looking forward to it.  No painted stripe for me but a retape job with the navy blue and gold tape system that is on the newer Compacs. 

The bottom paint I dread.  Hmm, maybe I need to wait for one of those sons to come home to help with the sanding.  Crawling around under that trailer is not something I'm looking forward to.

I noticed in the picture that rather unique mast gallows.  Is that just clamped to the stanchions? Made from aluminum tube? Left on all the time or only put on when you dropped the mast?

[relamb]

The mast gallows was made by a prior owner, I think the intent was to be able to lay down the mast while on the water.  It's all stainless, except the wood which is Cyprus.  The end fittings where it attaches to the stern rail are like what would be used on a bimini top, so it can be taken off by removing the 4 hinge screws.  I almost always leave it on, although the port angle brace gets in the way when raising the motor, and the starboard makes it a trick boarding via the swim ladder.  If we're going to be in a slip for the season, I take it off.   For trailering, the mast just lays back in the gallows, and I tie a red flag to the top of the mast.   Everything on the mast stays rigged when it's laid back, except the forestay.  The boom has an extension at the gooseneck so it folds up along the mast.  The forwardmost sidestays have toggles to slacken them.  The previous owner even left the sails on when trailering 100 miles, protected by the sail covers.   I have not done that.  The tabernacle is custom made, all welded, of aluminum plate.  There's the pivot pin, and another pin at the bottom to pin the mast vertically.  Those are stainless pins.  remove the forestay, pull the bottom pin from the mast, release the two sidestay toggles, lay the mast back.  That's all there is to it.

[BruceW]

That is very like the boom tender system, a variant of what the Suncat uses. I did something similar for my P-21. I will likely want to do something like that for my CP-23, when I get the mast step fixed.

[87compac23]

Loved the photos.  I noticed you have a folding cover over the cockpit. I didn't think you could do that on the 23.  Where did you get it? Was it factory?
Thanks,
Ralph

[relamb]

Ralph, by "folding cover over the cockpit" what do you mean?  The bimini top?  That came with the boat.  I did cut the legs down shorter so I could sail with it raised, and I also put on some longer tracks so that it could slide farther forward and back.  I can now slide it forward enough to leave the companionway fully open when it rains.  And back out of the way when not in use.  When I'm for sure not going to use it, I take it off and put it behind the backstay on top of the stern rail.

[87compac23]

Ralph, by "folding cover over the cockpit" what do you mean?  The bimini top?  That came with the boat.  I did cut the legs down shorter so I could sail with it raised, and I also put on some longer tracks so that it could slide farther forward and back.  I can now slide it forward enough to leave the companionway fully open when it rains.  And back out of the way when not in use.  When I'm for sure not going to use it, I take it off and put it behind the backstay on top of the stern rail.

Yes, I knew that's what it was but I had a brain freeze at the time....ahhh senility. Really nice.