The Starling Project - Part 5

I used a belt sander with a heavy grit paper to sand the paint off the hull. Kitted out with my ear muffs and breathing apparatus (Both essential) I made pretty quick work of taking the paint off.

It was warm enough to only wear a pair of shorts, making the laundry aspect a lot less of a mission - I shook out half a ton of dusk at the end and soaked my shorts in a bucket of water. Sanding is a task I like the least, but it is a necessary job for this particular project. The dust gets everywhere and seems to find its way into every fundamental orifice of the human body - bloody Nora.

An earlier restoration hangs above my head in the background, the little 7 foot 'P' Class yacht.  I remember burning the paint off with a heat gun and finding it a pleasant task. I tried the heat gun on this Starling but to no avail, the paint seemed to be baked on like a potters glaze. So it was a horrible dusty, gritty job. The good thing is that the sanding is the worst of the list of jobs to do and now it's over and done with. The rest of the work will be a lot more pleasant.

 

Halfway through the process with dust everywhere.

 

Nearly complete - I wore out two sanding belts.

 

Bad areas of rot at the stern. The plywood here is paper thin, black and fragile.

 

  The port side of the boat is in bad shape. I may have to re - plywood the whole side.

Sanding completed giving me a good view of what's to be done next. The plywood is in bad shape in many places so it may mean pretty much re - ply wooding most of the hull. Considering the deck has all gone, it will possibly be only the plywood cockpit sides, the yachts framing and the main bulkheads that will remain.