She got NAME.  Toady applied  registration numbers and Name/Port  to the boat hull. I had option to not show Texas registration numbers (as soon as she is antique boat), but I decided it will be "polite" to officials to show it to avoid additional questions. Starting today she is 100% officially VIRA.        Mast Preparation to get back to the water are underway.  All Mast  hardware is reinstalled. Everywhere where stainless contacting to aluminum Tef-gel  applied to minimize galvanic corrosion. Custom Radar mount installed. All top mast instruments are not installed to minimize vertical draft and protect them from damage in case we get contact with bridge for some reason. All new cables installed.  total 8 cables ;-)  Mast top: VHF/AIS  Antenna  Tri-color/anchor light (16 AWG)  Wind sensor/video camera (20AWG) Radar  level: Radar cable (B&G cable) "spare" Ethernet CAT5 (for 4G/WIFI router) 4 wire 18awg ...

Boat name Boat name coming to coming to reality. It is just simulation for now.   MAST Preparing and coating spreaders for Nyalic coating.    Texas ice storm 2025, No  work on boat

 Mast Mast sanded  to state to remove all pitting and prepare for painting. Lightning protection ground plate plate 3' x 4" mounted to hull on port side.  To drill hole as close to the mast as possible I had to remove grey water tank out of the locker. To remove tank i had to disconnect sanitation hoses, and it was pretty hard task.  Plate installed on two bronze 1/2 bolts. One is under the waste tank, second one under the floor sole under the cabin table. Plate is mounted using 3M 5200 adhesive.  Plate compressed to the hull and left for the week.  Engine  Water strainer installed, all clamps set on raw water hoses. Installed seaflo water strainer, to install it I had to make a stand to let access for cleaning it.  Strainer installed above water line.  Waterline painting  Put masking tape and lightly cover edge between white topside paint with the topside paint, then next day applied layer of blue paint. I am keeping fingers crossed it ...

 Hull Topside painting First 2 layers of paint was done last Saturday and Sunday  and pained hull looked absolutely cool. It was heart breaking moment when i get know that all hard work (and money) was put on topsides get to nothing but very poor result. I know that Alexseal Topcoat 501 paint is humidity sensitive e.t.c but after good experience with  Interlux Perfection which is also humidity sensitive I decided that IF i give paint full 12 hours at 25C with about 70% RH it will be dry enough to withstand morning dew and fog. NO! It did not.  Morning dew last Monday appeared Sunday evening dew and all night fog covered boatyard. It did not give paint to dry enough to withstand environment. About 30% of whole surface get damaged (instead of high gloss surface it get dull and matt).   This weekend I changed strategy, first to apply paint as early as possible we sanded and washed previous coat day before painting and  on Saturday morning as soon as morni...

    Dec 20, Sanding topsides Sanding fairing on topsides, a lot of sanding, all guide coat sanded out. Starboard  end of the day pictures. Port side Mixing One more layer of barrier coat, but then realized we need to sand whole bottom, so next layer of barrie rcoat move Second layer of the barrier coat done. Maria is trying painting hood. It appeared WAY too small. ;-) Dec 21 Priming topsides (2 layers in one day)   Maria inspecting the work early morning.    THE LAST blister glassed and putty applied.   Transom required a lot of putty to get good. Not really deep voids, but a lot of shallow imperfections and old fish eyes.    Me sanding transom         Then we sanded barriercoat between layers. It was a warm day and it was not a glass sanding, so no hazmat suits this time, just positive pressure mask.    Me after sanding      Then 2 layers of top side primer.  Layer one  Second...