A client has contacted us with a request to purchase a sailing boat in the Adriatic and would like the underwater part to be inspected and, if warranted, a full repair carried out.He is looking for a long-term solution. We are familiar with the not always professional work of our colleagues in Croatia and we are facing a serious challenge. After the buffing, a thorough washing followed for extra money. After that it was obvious that not much attention had been paid to the area below the waterline in recent years.There were several seasons of algae barrier layers , well separated from each other , as they had not been sanded back. The previous algae barrier layers showed significant “cratering” and were several mm thick.The initial step was to start hand sanding – the raskettas. The resulting surface was sanded with a Mirka Deros sander and Mirka Abranet 80-120 sanding mesh.At this point it was already apparent that the gel coat was slightly cobwebbed, so we decided to rework the underwater area in 2 coats with Tikalflex Fast Patch after degreasing and cleaning. After complete drying we hand sanded the surface and then applied a 2 coat primer coat of International Primocom primer.Then we moved on to the algae barrier. The solution was Marlin’s semi-hard matrix algaecide. The next step to protect the waterline and the softer metals is to install the right amount of anodes.The sailing boat was also a charter boat before ,so we replaced the Yanmar 4JHE engine in it with a Craftsman Marine diesel engine. After a complete degreasing of the engine compartment, it was given a coat of paint and of course a new engine compartment insulation. A new shaft bearing, a new stuffer box (Stuffybox) and a new 3 blade Radice propeller were also fitted.A satisfied customer is a good customer and to keep our work visible in the evening we surprised him with a small “night light”.
