Several items required more maintenance than usual.
Main Cabin Deck
The main cabin polyester deck showed the last few years in wintertime some blisters, not in an amount that it worried me, no leakage but it did not look to nice. In November 2025 I opened a few and the smell was like vinegar which indicates osmosis. A bit strange for a boat built in 1969 where there was never an indication of the mentioned issue nor that it would happen in an area which is not below the water line, which is in most cases the issue with polyester boats. A few of the blisters were opened flushed out with fresh water sanded out till clean polyester was reached degrease and filled with polyester putty and left over for the winter time. This way I could check if the planned repair would hold over the winter period, bear in mind the boat is not dry stored during the winter months but remains in the water and is not covered.
Although not many pictures were taken from the repairs the following pictures will give you an indication of the repairs. When temperatures rises in July and dry conditions were expected all the blisters were manually opened and flushed out with lots of fresh water they were then sanded out with course sand paper in a larger area than the actual blister. The "strange" thing is that most of the damage was on one side of the deck while the other side had minor damages. Nor on the roof of the steering cabin blisters have been been found. After the blister removal the complete deck was sanded and some more smaller blisters were found and removed. The compete deck was then degrease and the holes filled with 2 component polyester putty. then the complete deck was sanded again and low areas of the deck were again filled with 2 component polyester putty.
All was sanded again degrease and the first coat of two component epoxy paint was added.following the drying and applying requirements for the paint 4 more layers were applied. This looks a lot but in between some of the layers of paint sanding was required.
The deck looked then good and acceptable.
To get a nicer finish the deck was then polished with 3 different types of polishing compound from course to very fine.
Grab rails were the put back used tape to prevent the least amount of Sikaflex onto the deck just covering under the grab rail supports
Hand Rails were put back into position and all looked again as it supposed to be.
Transom Hull Side Planks
These type of boats do have an area which is the aft side where the water runs of the deck this is a small area where the transom meets the side.
This is an area which requires yearly inspection. If this is not done one can end up with the same issues I had when I bought the boat, replacing hull planks at the above mentioned area .
During my inspection this year I did see a few spots in the paint which showed that there was some damage to the paint. As can be seen from the below picture I ended up with easily removing all the paint from the end of the side hull planks.
Checked with a Moisture meter the water ingress into the wood but this was a low percentage, this is expected since the planks are above the water line. Planks were painted again with the proper paint procedure primer tree layers and 3 layers of finishing paint. This ob can easily be done while the ship is in the water, at least it was for me. When the ship was out of the water at the end of the year the same area below the water line was inspected but no issues found.
Deck house Wood Maintenance
In 2025 the starboard side and aft side of the deck house was sanded and protected with Owatrol D1 and D2 Oil.
This year the front area and the port side was done, as can be seen this was required although every year when necessary light sanding was performed an a new layer of D2 oil was added but as can be seen from the pictures the wood lost it's color and a few area's the full protection was gone.
The area near the engine inlet covers had more damaged paint.
The complete layer of oil was removed first with course sand paper and then with the required type of sand paper by Owatrol.
Dust from the sanding was removed, complete area degrease and 15 layers of Owatrol D1 were applied.
Although this looks like a lot and a lot of work it is actually done in one warm sunny day. It dries quickly and the first few layers can be applied one after another. as can be seen it brings the color back into the wood. It shows that the area under the engine inlet cover was also discolored. This area was not completely sanded till the bare wood but protected with a few layers of Owatrol D2.
After the Owatrol D1 was applied 8 layers of Owatrol D2 were applied this takes some more time 2 layers per day preferably 12 hours apart. This took me 4 days. Then several days of letting the oil harden out before the engine inlet cover was put back. The same procedure was followed for the front window frame.
As can be seen from the next picture even after a year there is already some discoloring due to the UV light starboard side done 2025 front side 2026.
Transom maintenance.
As could be seen from above pictures the transom of the boat did not look very representative. A few years ago when the boat was out of the water the 2 component epoxy paint let loose at some spots on the transom. Never found an explanation or reason this happened could be a procedure mistake from my side. During that time I applied two layers of 2 component epoxy paint but as can be seen there is a discoloring between the original and repainted area's. Therefore when the boat was out of the water at the end of the season the transom was repainted.
Hardware was removed and even then I found some kind of de-lamination between the epoxy and epoxy paint.
Whole area was sanded till bare wood with different types of sandpaper from course to fine.
Area was cleaned with a tack cloth and degrease. then the following procedure was followed taking in account the required drying and sanding requirements for the type of epoxy and 2 component clear epoxy paint I used, this could be different for another type of materials used therefore no specific drying and sanding requirements are mentioned.
First layer of 2 component impregnating epoxy with some brow coloring was applied, the reason for some coloring paste used was that there is less chance that the wood would discolor over the years of time..
Then 3 layers of normal 2 component epoxy was applied followed by 4 layers of 2 component clear epoxy paint .
The result of this work was satisfying.
Hardware was installed again as well as the name and home port of the boat.Transom below the water line was painted with anti fouling paint sides were cleaned and some minor touch ups of white paint and then the boat was ready to go into the water.
