The first photo is what we look like now with the bottom paint completed. The sccond photo shows the shells which were in the starboard engine strainer. These had to enter through the small holes visible in the strainer and then grow in the strainer. The lower left corner was one shell growing attached to the strainer. Wonder why the stbd engine ran a little hot at higher RPM's? The last photo shows Muriel and Shelly painting on the bottom. We all three worked on applying bottom paint on two days.

July 21, 2010 Sunshine's bottom is finally done. We have filled and faired all the blisters and applied six coats of barrier coat. Now we have finally gotten the antifoulant bottom paint applied. All that remains is to install the zincs on the transom and a couple of coats of hard bottom paint on the running gear which has three coats of barrier coat applied and ready for bottom paint. After appling the bottom paint I was poking the paint out of the raw water strainers on the outside of the hull and noticed the sound of shells rattling on the inside. When I removed the strainers I found the strainer for the starboard engine was full of shells. Evidentually they enter through the 3/32"holes and then grow inside the strainer.

It feels great to have the bottom of Sunshine looking so good and ready to go. It will be a few weeks before we launch because Muriel is having cataracs removed on Tuesday and I do not expect the Dr. will want her out in the heat for a while.

These photos show the bottom as it now appears, almost totally covered with fairing compoind and ready to be barrier coated.

May 3, 2010, Sunshine is nearing the point of beginning to apply barrier coat. I estimate two days' work to complete fairing pin holes and filling one last (?) blister. I have also removed the swim platform to repair the starboard 1/3 of which has become soft due to water intrusion. The remaining 2/3 has already been re-done.

During my last work session I went over vertually every inch of the bottom with fairing compound to fair out previous places which I faired and to fill many pin holes in the gel-coat.

The first two pictures show Sunshine with repairs underway to fill and fair the areas which were ground out for blister repair. The grey spots are ground out, the red areas are spots which have been filled and are ready to sand. The third photo shows the damage to the flybridge canvas.

Sunshine spent the entire summer waiting on the Lovetts to finish their yard and house work after being gone for an entire year. On October 1, 2009 Sunshine was hauled for new bottom paint. We found quite a case of blisters which needed to be repaired. Jeff and Anne and I worked for a couple of long weekends grinding blisters and waxing. Jeff completed most of the waxing and also a lion's share of the grinding. Sunshine has set on the hard since then waiting out a long cold and wet winter for the hull to dry out. We have finally begun the repairs on the blisters. As of today we are probably nearly half way completed with blister repair.

We had a storm with winds to 60 mph back in February. The wind pretty well shredded the eisenglass on the fly bridge. So now we have a restitched enclosure with all new eisenglass.