tcm
...
I have just returned from the most hardestest (?) week of manual work ever. Together with volunteers Talbot and Colholic, we applied stripper to the boat, scraped the old antifould off manually (cos the yard manager wouldn't let it be sprayed towards other boats), prepped the surface to bare GRP, then cut and fitted 110 sq metres of self-adhesive copper in five days flat - 5pm tuesday to five pm sunday. I am totally knackered, ate loads of food but lost almost half a stone. Points of interest are
1. Removall 610 afoul stripper really works. You can roller it on. But be careful when washing off cos it will lift any paint down to GRP. I bought too much - 1 litre psqm is fine for thick old antifoul, but i only needed half a litre per sq metre. I have 20 litres for sale cheapish on for sale foum.
2. The idea of a copper bottom thhese days is to inhibit growth of barnacles which can't grow on the coper oxide surface. You also get a solid surface on the grp, which is prevented from getting wet. It also lasts for ages, sono need for expensive liftouts evry year or even more often.
3. The copper comes in massive long rolls. To apply, you cut it up in foot long lengths and overlap, starting from the back. For a powerboat, expect length x breadth to be just about enough.
4. It looks the absolute biz. Boatone's site has pix - thanks boatone
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/copperbottom>http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/copperbottom</A>
But it will go green very soon of course
5. I told Coliholic to bring some bacon and he brought one packet each for every day. There's also an indian restaurant in Antibes, but i'm a bit sick of it now having been every flippin day.
6. Talbot is vair nice and careful-thinking chap, and saw probs (like missing bits) before too late and boat back in the water. Whereas me and Coliholic just slap the stuff on anyold how as fast as poss. In fact, I had to do my bits especially badly in order to match them up with Coliholic's.
7. We had Macdonals for lunch every day. Talbot went and gottem, partly cos he knackered himself day one with stripping the old antifoul. I suggested that we have quarter pounders perhaps instead of the normal Big macs, and he didn't argue. Actually, as i explained further, they don't call them quarter pounders in France. Why's so, queried Talbot innocently. See, in france they have the metric system. So what do they call them, asks Talbot. They call them a Royale with Cheese, i said. Hm. Never mind, Coliholic didn't get it either.
8. We had a quick thrash after going back in and the boat did almost 32 knots with full fuel and water. Previous best 31 knots near empty. So, my boat is nearly but not quite as fast as that git jfm who turned up too late to help from Genoa with his boat which is a knot faster, grrr.
9. This new merc AMG e55 goes really very fast indeed. Loaded with about half a tonne of copper and paint stripper we got down in just over 8 hours having stopped for 45 minutes when ahem i ran out of petrol. Running out of petrol on the autoroute costs 128 euros for the roadside visit and pouring in 10 litres of fuel. By contrast, doing over a 100mph only costs a 90 euro fine. Work that one out. If it's really incredibly hot in one of these new mercs it is likely cos one of the kids has turned up the heater in the back to 32 degrees so coins in the place between the seats are too hot to touch, but we found the right button on the way back.
10. okay, we hired dayworkers to help putting on the copper. We had one young guy for two days, another for three days. calling them "dayworkers" makes it sounds as though they are quite casual. But the french call the "travailleurs" (workers) and they worked blimming hard.
11. My airless sprayer was crap. You need a decent one for spraying Removall. Or, a roller is okay but can't apply thickly so have to do it again a bit.
12. At the boatyard, everyone thought we were totally mad, and wouldn't get it done,especially the yard manager. Then, they were all very intrested, and could have spent the entire time chatting to passers-by.
13. We slep on the boat, and got shore power, at Chantier Trehard in antibes. No security really, could come and go all day and all night.
14. The shipyard has a workaday chandlery for things you might need, but no prices on anything. erk. You just go and get it, and get billed later. We bought loads of scrapers, 7 galons of acetone, anodes, and a full set of spare anodes.
15. Coliholic worked very hard too. Yes, really! I only caught him sitting down fifteen times, although that may have been to get to the bottom of the boat. Over the five days he consumed five chicken tika marsalas, five big mac meals with extra cheeseburger, five chicken tika marsalas with rice and two nan bread, ten bottles of water, 30 rashers of bacon and two dozen eggs, and so did Talbot and I , although we ate ours a bit more daintily, I think. Oh and we hardly had much alcohol cos we were knackered, so only got thru three bottles of scotch and five bottles of wine.
16. Special thanks to talbot and coliholic for doing loads of work, and for putting up with me for almost a whole week.
1. Removall 610 afoul stripper really works. You can roller it on. But be careful when washing off cos it will lift any paint down to GRP. I bought too much - 1 litre psqm is fine for thick old antifoul, but i only needed half a litre per sq metre. I have 20 litres for sale cheapish on for sale foum.
2. The idea of a copper bottom thhese days is to inhibit growth of barnacles which can't grow on the coper oxide surface. You also get a solid surface on the grp, which is prevented from getting wet. It also lasts for ages, sono need for expensive liftouts evry year or even more often.
3. The copper comes in massive long rolls. To apply, you cut it up in foot long lengths and overlap, starting from the back. For a powerboat, expect length x breadth to be just about enough.
4. It looks the absolute biz. Boatone's site has pix - thanks boatone
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/copperbottom>http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/copperbottom</A>
But it will go green very soon of course
5. I told Coliholic to bring some bacon and he brought one packet each for every day. There's also an indian restaurant in Antibes, but i'm a bit sick of it now having been every flippin day.
6. Talbot is vair nice and careful-thinking chap, and saw probs (like missing bits) before too late and boat back in the water. Whereas me and Coliholic just slap the stuff on anyold how as fast as poss. In fact, I had to do my bits especially badly in order to match them up with Coliholic's.
7. We had Macdonals for lunch every day. Talbot went and gottem, partly cos he knackered himself day one with stripping the old antifoul. I suggested that we have quarter pounders perhaps instead of the normal Big macs, and he didn't argue. Actually, as i explained further, they don't call them quarter pounders in France. Why's so, queried Talbot innocently. See, in france they have the metric system. So what do they call them, asks Talbot. They call them a Royale with Cheese, i said. Hm. Never mind, Coliholic didn't get it either.
8. We had a quick thrash after going back in and the boat did almost 32 knots with full fuel and water. Previous best 31 knots near empty. So, my boat is nearly but not quite as fast as that git jfm who turned up too late to help from Genoa with his boat which is a knot faster, grrr.
9. This new merc AMG e55 goes really very fast indeed. Loaded with about half a tonne of copper and paint stripper we got down in just over 8 hours having stopped for 45 minutes when ahem i ran out of petrol. Running out of petrol on the autoroute costs 128 euros for the roadside visit and pouring in 10 litres of fuel. By contrast, doing over a 100mph only costs a 90 euro fine. Work that one out. If it's really incredibly hot in one of these new mercs it is likely cos one of the kids has turned up the heater in the back to 32 degrees so coins in the place between the seats are too hot to touch, but we found the right button on the way back.
10. okay, we hired dayworkers to help putting on the copper. We had one young guy for two days, another for three days. calling them "dayworkers" makes it sounds as though they are quite casual. But the french call the "travailleurs" (workers) and they worked blimming hard.
11. My airless sprayer was crap. You need a decent one for spraying Removall. Or, a roller is okay but can't apply thickly so have to do it again a bit.
12. At the boatyard, everyone thought we were totally mad, and wouldn't get it done,especially the yard manager. Then, they were all very intrested, and could have spent the entire time chatting to passers-by.
13. We slep on the boat, and got shore power, at Chantier Trehard in antibes. No security really, could come and go all day and all night.
14. The shipyard has a workaday chandlery for things you might need, but no prices on anything. erk. You just go and get it, and get billed later. We bought loads of scrapers, 7 galons of acetone, anodes, and a full set of spare anodes.
15. Coliholic worked very hard too. Yes, really! I only caught him sitting down fifteen times, although that may have been to get to the bottom of the boat. Over the five days he consumed five chicken tika marsalas, five big mac meals with extra cheeseburger, five chicken tika marsalas with rice and two nan bread, ten bottles of water, 30 rashers of bacon and two dozen eggs, and so did Talbot and I , although we ate ours a bit more daintily, I think. Oh and we hardly had much alcohol cos we were knackered, so only got thru three bottles of scotch and five bottles of wine.
16. Special thanks to talbot and coliholic for doing loads of work, and for putting up with me for almost a whole week.
