I am posting the progress on my boats bottom job here as an informational service. I am a first-time mid-size boat owner, and while I read a lot about bottom jobs and how they should be done, I still wanted to see some pictures, and get a recent, first hand account of what the process is really like.

Today I drove my boat into the drydock bay at Dutchmans Landing, a small marina two coves over from my mine in Austin, Texas.

Some history on the boat: she has had three owners including me. The first owner owned a marina here on Lake Travis called Emerald Point. He held her for 10 years. During this time, she was hauled once a year or so and pressure washed. As far as I know, she never had a bottom job during that time. When the second owner obtained her from the first owner, he put her in a slip and kept her there for another 10 years. Thats right, she spent a minimum of 10 years in the water without ever going on the hard. I was suprised how good she looked when I had her surveyed last year, but I knew a bottom job was in my near to immediate future (part of the purchase). I think the second owner was afraid of what she looked like down below, and that is one of the reasons I got her at such a good price.

Flying Sailboat 7-30-01

Well folks, this is what your bottom looks like when you dont do preventative maintenance. Yes, that green carpet can belong to you, too. This photo was taken before the pressure wash. The pressure wash was simply a high pressure water gun that knocked the living organic matter off of the hull.

What was left was a hard, concrete-like layer on the upper portion of the boat bottom. This was secured to the non-functional bottom paint (which the surveyor thought may have been applied to the boat upon commissioning back in 1979). The only way to get the hard deposits off was by applying muratic (sp?) acid.

Mossy Bottom Girl

Dont put this on your own bottom - just the boats. Muratic acid was applied to the below water areas - first at the water line where the largest mineral deposits were, then the entire bottom. In this picture, you can see that the starboard forward section is covered. This was then pressure washed clean, resulting in...

ACID BATH

A smoother bottom. I still cannot believe it, but this is my boat - the way she should have looked. Anyway, this is whats left of the old bottom paint. This is a marked improvement over the beginning of the day.

By the way, I am sure someone out there is wondering about blisters. After the wash, the boat appeared to have only 4 small dime-size blisters, and one half dollar sized one. How can this be? A catalina in the water on a freshwater lake for over 10 years and almost no blisters? My surveyor said that this hull (#4221) may have been poured with more glass than usual. He was unsure, but that was his best guess. I figured I would have quite a few more. I did notice a few bumps on the rudder this evening, but Im not sure if those are blisters or not. Even if they are, I am counting myself as lucky.

Smooth..

And at the end of the day, this is what the port side looked like. Much of the bottom paint had been scraped away, and the hull was beginning to feel smooth to the touch. All the gunk on the waterline was gone, and my poor C-27 seemed to be thanking me, and glowing in the evening sun.

Cant wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Hopefully I will be able to get more photos as she progresses, but Im not sure if the work schedule will permit it.

Anyway, I hope this post will take some of the mystery out of what happens during a bottom job, and what to expect. It is just cursory information. However, with adequate research, I hope it it will help you along if this type of work is in your boats (and your wallets) future.

Smoother