Big haul out task 1 is completed!

Well it took almost 3 gallons of paint, lots of sand paper and oh the fiberglass, epoxy, and barrier coat (and my friend Ed) but Sweet Dreams bottom is done! It took 3 days of painting. The first day was after a heavy rain that left water around the boat. The water made painting much more difficult as I had to step and kneel on small boards. The wind was even strong enough to flip a roller pan of paint (there went $50.00). Days two and three were easier, just painful back work.

Two steps forward one back… the second major haul out task is to replace the dripless seal used on the drive shaft. Our current dripless seal has a flexible/rubberish bellows with a suggested replacement of 10-15 years. We are way past this time so a new Lasdrop seal has been purchased. To install requires removing the shaft coupling between the shaft and the transmission. After 25+ years it does not want to come off. The shaft is bronze the coupler is cast iron. Current I have someone scheduled to cut it off. This issue is risky to both our schedule (December 1 launch date) and the budget.

below are some pictures of the completed bottom.