It is a good feeling to put a major project to bed. There is now one coat of ablative antifouling on the hull hiding all of those fortified epoxy barrier coats that cover the various filled scrapes and other repairs. The new stern tube worked out just fine. It looks a lot like the original, but it is now in perfect alignment. The now gone trim tab is faired in well. The bulge visible on the right is for the engine.

Prepping the teak toe rails, eyebrows, coamings, etc. is nearing completion, and I expect to finish sealing them in December. Chainplate fabrication and installation will follow. There should be sufficient nice days to finally get a couple of coats of primer on the deck before the weather forces me below.

I think this deserves a bit of celebration.

Here are a few of the approximately 150 holes in the mast that required filling. The trysail track provided the majority of them - all small. The filled holes in the photo were for a winch pad to the left and for two cleats to the right. None will be remounted. I drilled out approximately 20 stainless screws that simply refused to back out. Every hole was chamfered, treated with Alumiprep, dried with hot air, filled with epoxy putty, then sanded fair with 150 grit paper (as specified for the epoxy primer).

Additionally, all of the various scrapes the mast has gotten into over the past 40 years are filled and faired. There is no corrosion aside from the shallow roughness that formed under winch pads. I think a couple of coats of high build primer will make that disappear.

Next up is an all-over RO sanding. Following that is treatment with Alumiprep and then Alodine. Priming will follow right away. I now fully understand why painting an old mast costs a small fortune.

More rail sanded and sealed with Semco. I realize that this is pretty much heresy for a Hinckley, but I simply cannot imagine going back to the eight coats of varnish with maintenance every six months and still eventually having to wood out and begin again. Happily there are yacht owners who wave their checkbooks and varnish happens. I will be happy to admire it.

The position for the new hatch is thus. I will glass a frame in like the forward hatch and build a teak and acrylic hatch to match the original. It will have gas springs.

The boat is completely level, and I left spots on the bow, amidships, and at the stern where the bottom of the old bootstripe remains visible. I used the water tube to level from port to starboard and a laser level to get bow to stern. The laser was then used to tick a line from the bow to stern. The level is attached to the container on the right with built-in magnets. Marking the waterline was an anticlimax compared to getting the boat level within less than 1/16 inch. That took about three hours.

The teak has all been washed with oxalic acid and neutralized with Borax. I took it easy with this admittedly damaging exercise limiting the abuse by scrubbing lightly with a Scotch-Brite pad. Some light sanding and then coating with Semco is progressing well.

The bottom has two new holes for the thru hulls. Nice to see relatively thick cores in this battleship.

The sea hood is almost ready for priming and painting as are the boom and mast. I built an instrument pod that will be sheathed in cloth and epoxy and then mounted as it sits in the photo.