Last tasks before launching

I aim to launch Meritaten tomorrow so it is now time to remove her “winter dress” from the bottom and apply antifouling paint.

Instead of Hempel paint I needed to use International self-polishing ablative paint. Same thing in principle so they are compatible. After the hull’s bottom dried I applied non-thinned antifouling. Last year I painted with thinned Hempel and had some considerable fouling so this year I applied full-strength protection. I need to strip the bottom anyhow in coming winter maintenance so no regrets here.

While painting I noticed that many parts of iron ballast start to flake the epoxy barrier which previous owner applied. The bottom part of the rudder also needs to be striped from old paint as it already detaches from the wood.

Dyviken was crewed into its place so the hull was now closed.

I checked all through-hulls and closed the valves. I have 6 through-hull openings under water line: cockpit drain (2 pcs). sea-water inlet for engine and kitchen (1 pc), mechanical log VDO (1 pc) and toilet in- and out- valves. The plan for coming years is to reduce this number to bare minimum: since I don’t use direct-discharge toilet (illegal in Archipelago) these holes can be closed permanently. VDO log is not working properly so I’ll remove it. That makes it 50% less through-hull openings.

Just in case any of these fails I also prepared wooden plugs which will hang on each of these openings, in case of emergency.

I’ve installed new sacrificial anode on the propeller shaft and sprayed antifouling onto propeller.

All other tasks will have to be done on water - otherwise I will need another week on hard and I don’t want to wait any longer, risking the hull will dry too much.

So we have “go for launch”!