Learning curves are steep around here…
Story 1:
Jon arrived at 2:30am, after 24 hours of travel (involving 2 cancelled flights, 1 missed connection, and 1 ten-hour bus through the Mexican desert)... but by the end of that first day, he had half the boat scraped (2" at a time, with the carbide-scraper)
...But what did all that scraping unveil? What was underneath 30 years of built up old bottom paint? A tiny little crack in the keel...
...Which it turned out was actually not just a little crack at the bottom of the keel, but actually a giant crack running up both sides of the keel, parallel to the rudder. NOT WHAT WE WANTED TO FIND!!!
What to do? Ignore the problem? Hope it goes away? Or grind the damn thing down and see what's underneath...
Jon ground out all the cracked / old material, and then started the process of rebuilding it
Once we (aka: Jon) opened up the crack, we discovered it was actually a joint, most likely from the original lay-up of the boat. Thankfully the workyard here at Marina Seca has lots of Teachers (as above) so Jon's been getting lots of advice on how to fix & re-fibreglass this area. Only time will tell if this permanently fixes the problem!!!
Lesson learned: Under 30 years of old bottom paint, you may find 30 years’ of problems. Also, cruisers in the workyard are *ridiculously* helpful and wonderful and willing to impart advice (and tools) and general moral support / ribbing any time of day 🙂