Now that spring is here and the weather has been getting warm enough to varnish and paint, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing to get ORION ready for the sailing season. Fortunately, her topsides and deck are still in excellent condition, but she needed a new coat of bottom paint, bootstripe, and maintenance varnish on her coaming tops and hatchboard slides.
I managed to pull ORION out of her boatshed and bring her over to the asphalt driveway where I carefully took her off her trailer and onto jackstands so I could sand the bottom. At the same time, I lowered the centerboard just enough so I could replace the centerboard line attached to the trailing edge. The 3/16” dyneema line that was previously there had held up pretty well for ten years or so, but I wanted to play it safe and replace it with new dyneema. After that, I gave the bottom a coat of black Pettit Trinidad SR bottom paint using the leftovers from a gallon I had purchased the last time I painted the bottom three years ago. Once it dried, I put ORION back on her trailer, and she’s back in the boatshed awaiting her first coat of bootstripe paint and varnish. I’m hoping to launch her sometime next week!