Spring welding project.

March 2021.

Once We were in Luperon with both boats and all the tools in one place, there was nothing to do but get started. One of our highest priorities was to stop rainwater from coming in, and to stop the boat from filling with water. For the first wave of welding we worked with Luperon’s most famous welder- Felo, who can be found most days at his shop a block up from the municipal dock. Because we still did not have electricity sufficient to run welders on the boat or on the dock, Felo was able to bring over a generator welder and he, his crew, and we, cut out half the cabin roof and most of the back deck to replace them with new material. We canceled two of the hatches on the cabin roof and replaced the two on the back deck with more moderately sized ones, farther from the high-traffic cockpit area. We prepped the new steel with an anodic primer, and four coats of high-build epoxy barrier-coat. We used drops of pigment in each coat of epoxy paint to help keep track of how many complete coats there were, and I must say, the effect is pretty.