mahoo

I pulled my old free-sailing ketch out of the box that has been in storage for about thirty years. The white Fiberglass hull is discolored, and the red bottom paint is scratched/chipped from sailing it in my youth.

I would like to restore this boat, and repaint the hull. Do I need a proffesional painter to do this or can I get good results from commercially available spray paints?

The sails are attached to the mast by a string that wraps around the mast and then through a grommet in the sail. The grommets are about every four inches. I am going to make new sails, what is the best way to attach the sails to the round dowel masts?

When making the jib, do I run the forestay through the sail's luff seam? What's the best way to do this.

Thanks for the help,
Mitch

bt224

I painted mine with off the shelf spray paint (Krylon type).

Larry Ludwig

You can get satisfactory results with good spray paint cans, better than you would think if you have not used them in a while. Invest a few extra bucks and practice with a can on a similar surface to perfect your technique before blasting away on your model. Of course, prep is 90% of your finish... so the better you have your hull before you start, the better it will be after you finish.

Then too... it is not the paint as much as the rub out afterwards. Depending on what kind of paint you are going to use, prepare the hull to receive the paint either by priming of sanding the existing paint (which can make an excellent primer as well) Remember if you are painting previously unpainted fiberglass... that the may be residue of mold release still on the fiberglass. Not after 30 years you say??? Well... I know guys that paint cars for a living and tell me that ARMORALL will NEVER come completely off a painted surface... and gelcoat is quite porous... so do yourself a favor and make sure you use some solvent to clean and prepare that surface as well.

As to the mainsail attachment... you are using a basic gasket type and you can go back with that... if you do it.. then copy your previous sail... if not... send your old sails to one of the current sail makers (a list is available on the AMYA.ORG website) and have them copy them for you.

As to the jib luff/forestay most boats do run the forestay through the luff of the jib, and then have seperate tensioners for adjusting the sail. This is fine, unless you have a very large model and need to step the mast and then raise the sails. If that would be the case then you might want to have a "hot wire" that you can clip on easily to your mast and deck attachment point to step the mast. That way if you want to drop your sails for lunch, you can do so without dropping the mast. Most people don't find a need for this, but if it is a long event and you have a lot of boats and they are large, it sure comes in handy. It's nice for tuning your mast as well before you start adjusting with the sails on it.

Make yourself happy... after that... it's all easy.

Good luck with it.

mahoo

Thanks for the replys,

I want the boat hull to have a glossy finish when done, so I would like to find a paint that can be buffed and compounded to a shine. Perhaps, topped off with some clear. Searching the web yesterday I found some aerosol car paints that can be buffed and compounded. Any recommendations for a paint that has these properties?

You are right about the release agents, etc. I remember waxing this boat and it probably still has some on it.

I am going to try to make the sails myself. If the results do not meet my expectations, then I will give them to one of the profesionals. The boat is only about 40" long, and with the ketch rig, the main mast is relatively short. The boat will not be used for racing, so sail shape is not a real big concern. It may still get the occasional toss in a local pond, but the majority of the time it will sit on a shelf and be looked at.

Mitch