The work has begun.

We had Kabuki hauled out of the water on the 22 October, so yep about a month ago. But not much has been happening, we have painted the cabin top with new non-skid, and I will put some photo's on when I get them. I have done some varnishing, but am waiting for the electrician to come and install our new wind generator before I can re-do the companionway stairs ( I have been waiting for 2 weeks) Paul has spent the last 4 weeks preparing Kabuki for a fibre glass peel, to get rid of the osmosis problem that she has.He has removed all of the thru hull fittings, the lightning plate, SSB plate and transducers. We will be replacing the depth sounder, but we will not worry about the speed log as it has never worked (on our watch anyway).

Some of you may be aghast at the idea of a fibre glass peel, but we have done our research, and it has been happening here in NZ for the last 20 years, and we hear nothing but good reports for the work. Paul is tired of filling and fairing 50 - 60 blisters in the hull each year on haul-out, and the numbers keep growing each year. So we are biting the bullet and getting the peel done. Bud Taplin the Westsail go to guru does not recommend getting a fibreglass peel done. He seems to prefer just removing the gelcoat and then allowing it to dry. But on investigation of our hull with test grinds, it was found to be wet into the chop strand layer. So the peeling has commenced, scary.

 Not the best photo's sorry, but you get the idea. Below is the hull after the planer has been over, they will need to grind off up to the top of the boot topping etc. They are planing off a 5mm thickness ( I think) but about 2.5mm of that is antifoul, primer and gelcoat. Kabuki will be on the hardstand for a good 2 months to dry, it is coming into summer now so she should dry reasonably quickly.

So we have no planned trips for the next 3 months, we will be working and preparing Kabuki for next year. I will get some photo's of our non-skid efforts, we have used "Don't slip" by Benjamin Moore paints for the job and we are very happy with the results.

cheers for now