Thread: Building Shesha, a Hunter Valley GIS, Australia

Originally Posted by woodeneye

Hehe. The sailing season is finished now, but I have the South Pacific Laser Masters in mid July, so I need to keep the abs in shape during the off season.

If my shoulders touch the floor, I'm fully hiked. If my butt hits the floor, time to straighten those legs and lift! Has rubber feet to grip the floor when torquing. I can torque it to simulate waves and touch alternate shoulders to the floor.

I had a higher hiking bench, but it encouraged me to slouch and hang my butt too low which not only puts too much strain on the knees and quadriceps, but is bad as the waves hit your but and slow you down.

I already have hiking wings on the Goat. When I'm on the bar, my toes go under the gunwale rail

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the added stress to the mast (or did I miss it?).

Getting your weight out that far is certainly going to allow you to sail upright in heavier winds but MIK has talked about how the mast specs were chosen with a crew of two in mind. A crew of three would result in more stress to the mast, just as the ability to hike out further does.

Or do you plan to use these things when sailing one-up only?

No problem re the mast, it is plenty strong enough. I contacted MIK prior to building the wings. They work very well in the Salamander North Easter when I can power up the rig and confidently stay out on the rail. I think they'd be too cumbersome for 2-up, unless the crew is experienced. It certainly adds another dimension to the GIS!


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Time to hit some wooden boat regattas Bruce!

Old Gaffers Regatta 2011

Balmain Regatta


MIK

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Time to hit some wooden boat regattas Bruce!

Old Gaffers Regatta 2011

Balmain Regatta


MIK

I probably qualify as an old gaffer, forget about the boat.

Looks like Brightside has been discontinued, at least in Australia.

I bet they are just tweaking the formula and renaming it. Try the Interlux website...there may be news about it there.

I wish that were the case MAM. They have a newish product called Toplac which has displaced Brightside, but it's an alkyd base, not a polyurethane, and not a patch on the old Brightside. Brightside is still available in the US though.

Topside Paint, Topcoat Paint, Finishes & Protective Paint | International


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Here is the response I received from International:

Hi Bruce
We no longer have Brightside in Australia it has been replaced with Toplac.

Thanks

Joel Butterworth
Technical Customer Service Officer
Yacht Coatings

Hmm... I'm personally not weeping too many bitter tears about the demise of Brightside in Oz, after my experiences with it while painting my Storer OzRacer Mk II. I could never get a smooth glossy finish using the Yellow - it always ended up with a somewhat semi-gloss-ish orange-peel finish, even with the best quality rollers I could find (the white ones from Duck Flat Wooden Boats in the Adelaide Hills). Plus it tends to dissolve somewhat if wiped over with a meths-dampened rag.

On the other hand - to be fair - my working conditions could be described as sub-optimal (by quite a lot), being cool and damp wet. And there did seem to be a variation between tins of the stuff as well.

My next paint that I'm going to try will actually be a two-pack, probably BoatCraft's Aqua-Cote. I know MIK says things about this paint, but I'm going to try it out on a test piece to see for myself ;). I got a trial pack of White in a sample kit that also contained the high-build Aqua-Cote water-based epoxy primer (that I got to compare with the tins of the stuff that I already had, and had a slight concern about - needless, as it turned out).

If I don't like the Aqua-Cote, I'll try the Norglass two-pack - then the International Perfection two-pack if the Norglass doesn't work out, etc., etc. If I have very good results with the Norglass marine enamel that I'm going to use (eventually - sigh) on my 'Duckcote, I may even skip the two-packs and use it instead.

Hi Alex

I'm sure your damp conditions had everything to do with your fisheye issue. I would take heed of Mr Storer's experience though and save yourself the trouble of experimentation. He has done this for a living in a past life.

What glorious weather we're having at the moment, just perfect for painting. 20 degrees and 50% humidity. Can't get much better than that.

I'm about to start painting the Moth. After speaking to my supplier who has experience with the new Toplac, I'm feeling more at ease with the product and bought some today. I'll blog my experience with it.

I used Brightsides on my Simmons Sea Skiff when I launched it a couple years ago. IIRC it took four coats to get a satisfactory surface. It seemed to go on too thin and any scuff-sanding between coats always left me with some primer to cover up.

Fast forward two years and we just re-painted it with Fine Paints of Europe Brilliant, a one part alkyd enamel with extreme high gloss. The first attempt (the starboard side only) was a failure, probably due to cold temps (it was about 43F). The paint was too thick to flow and there were large swaths of runs and curtains. The recommended application temp was 40F at the low end so we thought we would be OK.

We let that cure for about 3 weeks then power-sanded it off, thinned the Brilliant with about 10 percent Penetrol and painted the whole boat. Coverage was great but my son, who was manning the brush, said we probably could have used a little more Penetrol. The finish isn't perfect but for a single coat applied by brush it turned out Brilliantl(ly).

This paint cures very hard and very slowly. It took 5 or 6 hours to skin over! I expected it to be full of tiny bugs but I can't find any. The stuff smells odd so I'm thinking they've found a magic solvent that repels bugs. All in all I can highly recommend the Fine Paints of Europe products for brush application and high gloss.



BTW--they guarantee coverage in two coats but we weren't changing the color by much and a single coat was all that was needed. When done we had a little more than half of the liter can left. If we hadn't had to sand down the first attempt I'd say a liter would be enough to paint this boat 3 times.

If someone reminds me I'll check with Duck Flat how they found the Top Lac. They were big fans of the Brightside (as was I). So their comparison in a commercial environment is always interesting.

MIK

I've put one coat of primer onto Max. I'm a very reluctant painter these days so am looking for all the shortcuts. Kim took one look at it and said "it needs another coat". Bugger, I was hoping to put colour on tomorrow. Off to buy some more primer...


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Looking a lot less moth-eaten ;). Looking good :).