Last summer’s longer cruise and additional time in the water started to show some new cracks in the enamel paint I used on the hull, mostly below the waterline. I started to think that after five years it might be time to update the bottom paint. My debate was, do i just sand the bottom and lightly scrape the cracks and just re-apply the existing enamel bottom paint… that would have been the easy option and I would likely have been done in a weekend of work.

I however was tempted to install a proper hard bottom paint that would have an epoxy primer and be more resilient to the trailer and spending more time in the water. I bought a couple quarts of VC Offshore and Interlux epoxy primer. This it turns out, was the longer and harder option as I had to remove all the alkyd enamel paint and primer before applying the new epoxy primer.

I started out with a scraper and a heat gun which felt effective at removing the pain, but quickly got old.

I quickly realized that although it was good, there was still a fair amount of primer left on the surface. I decided to get some paint stripper to help remove the primer and have a fully clean bottom to be able to put on the two part expoxy primer that needed everything removed.

Then I moved the boat in the hangar hoping to quickly have all the primer removal done with the paint stripper. But as I got into it, my attention to detail increased and I ended up spending a second weekend just preparing the hull.

I then took the opportunity to put a little more expoxy filler in the fillets between each strake. The idea was that it would be easier to paint and I would also contribute to a slightly faster hull.

Then a final prep of the hull after some sanding with acetone to remove any oils or blush that might make it harder for the epoxy primer to stick.

The first coat of primer was done on Sunday evening at sunset. Fortunately the days were warm and there was little chance of dew overnight.

The next day after work I came by and added a second coat of epoxy primer, this time with a white colour that made it easier to see where I was putting it on the grey primer layer before.

And then all week I came back every day after work to add another layer of VC Offshore bottom paint.

The results are pretty nice and I hope will last quite some time. I was finished on Friday night and Saturday morning I had to roll the boat back down and onto the trailer.

In a couple hours I had the boat all rigged and loaded with gear and ready for a weekend trip across to Howe Sound with my family.

We launched on a beautiful late August day from the Jericho Sailing Centre.

In a couple hours we were at Passage Island to visit a friend who has recently purchased a property there. The access is somewhat adventurous.

After a visit for a couple hours we then crossed over to our BC Marine Trails camp spot.

Using my inflatable paddle board I was able to anchor with a stern-tie far enough to be sure to be still in the water at next morning’s low tide.

The boat looked pretty good just at the mouth of the cove. The bottom is not excellent for anchoring but with the stern tie providing a constant pressure from one direction, I felt pretty confident.

By sunset we had our tent set up on one of the tent pads and dinner was cooking. It felt pretty cool to be able to get out of the city for camping by dinghy and be in a place that although has capacity for a few more tents, did not have a soul this weekend.

The next morning I found the boat exactly where we had left it with a falling tide.

The south-east orientation of the site meant that I was able to lay out the solar panels to re-charge the battery for the electric outboard which we had used a little bit in the approach to Passage island where the winds tend to do funky things around point Atkinson where the Howe Sound and Georgia Strait winds are sometimes at cross purposes.

Just at the head of the beach in the cove there is a small stream coming down in a little “V” in the rock which we used to have a nice fresh water shower after a dip in the ocean.

At the lowest tide near noon, we were able to practically ferry all the camping gear by foot or stacked on the paddle board. I then just had to coil up the stern tie and we were able to sail off the anchor.

On the way home we had a really beautiful sail with a solid thermal breeze that gave us a nice broad reach all the way back to Jericho.

Passed by all the anchored tankers

This was a fantastic way to close out August and get a nice overnight sail from Vancouver back to Vancouver. I am hoping to do this again and connect more dots along the Howe Sound Marine Trail.