The week that was – Encore is back in the water
Posted By RichC on February 17, 2018
To the non-boat owner, having a sailboat sitting out of the water "on the hard" might seem like an inexpensive way to "park" a boat for a while? Well let me tell you that is not even close to being true, at least at a working yard.
Several months ago I had such grand plans for my brief scheduled maintenance during hurricane season. A quick haul at a "do-it-yourself" type yard for new bottom paint and a couple underwater minor items. Unfortunately once the bottom was blasted, I ended up having to deal with blisters again (unfortunately an all too common problem with older fiberglass boats). The process lead to hiring out the excessive labor and replacement of stuck seacocks and mushroom fitting. Finally, after adding the last splash of bottom paint to her keel once in the travel-lift and a new zinc to the prop shaft, we were able to launch. I was able to coerce a friend 
with breakfast to give me a hand so as I could putter Encore into a "new-to-us" dock … I do miss my friends Mark and Dar now that they have moved to Savannah. 
It is good to be back in the water although a leaking thru-hull (never good) did make me a bit nervous. I spent a full day cleaning the dust and dirt off the boat and gave my new neighbors, Sven and Nancy, a hand with their engineless boat; they were hauling out this week to replace their flooded old diesel with a new Beta engine. I’ll be anxious to see it and am looking forward to connecting with them again once they get back in the water.
My other new neighbor was trying some new Rustoleum Rust Dissolver Gel (Walmart Quart?) on his stainless steel rails. It worked well since the "gel" seems to stay where you rub it, and he was applying it with his bare hands! Yikes … I’m going to have to give it a try since there is no way the Snobol toilet bowl cleaner can be used like that!
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