I began talking with Greg at Annapolis Boat Services in 2024 about this job. We knew it would be a big project, but we didn’t know if there would be any unsettling discoveries. Finally, in the Winter of 2025-2026 while on the hard at Bert Jabin Yacht Yard, Greg started by making a few test swipes with the sander to get a sense of what was going on beneath the surface.
A few weeks later, the media blast crew removed all ablative paint down to barrier coat. It was Christmas Eve. These guys are solid.
It wasn’t looking too bad, and Greg and I decided to advance to the next step with final sanding. A few weeks went by and the guys sanded the barrier coats to get a smooth surface and reveal any potentially serious issues.
The boat had been soda blasted by Osprey Marine in 2016. 4 coats of Interprotect barrier paint were rolled on using alternating gray and white by the previous owner. We believe that our sanding took us down to 2 remaining original barrier coats from 2016. Once this was complete, it revealed that the keel needed to be re-glassed and faired at the hull-to-keel joint. The guys also started the process of replacing 5 of the remaining thruhulls below the water line. The thickness of the glass hull in the hallway was measured as 0.83 inches or 21 mm.
The hull-to-keel joint had been partially glassed over in the past. It didn’t appear to have any significant previous damage to it. A decision was made to reinforce the hull-to-keel joint with additional glass to improve the cosmetic appeal. Also, the thruhulls started going in despite the Annapolis area getting a lot of snow. Greg is using Yellow 55 sealant on thruhull threads inside the boat.
The guys started glassing the hull-to-keel joint and laying down epoxy over the joint as well as glassing over and improving the rudder shoe area.
A few days later, there was more fairing and epoxying.
The guys finally put down the 1st expoxy layer in April. Once this layer dried, the factory flaws and other imperfections appeared as expected. Regardless, it felt good to see the results of the hard work the team put in on this.
Fairing and smoothing and installation of the new HR bilge drain plug assembly as well as a new instrument thruhull from Airmar. A couple more coats of Interprotect 2000E were applied.
After 6 total new coats of Interprotect 2000E, the guys put down 2 coats of Petit Trinidad Pro.
The 2nd coat of Petit Trinidad Pro went on, and the guys applied PropSpeed and moved the jack stands to finish up. We compounded and polished the blue gelcoat stripe.
This was a much bigger job than envisioned since we added 5 thuhulls and 1 instrument thruhull and we went with 6 total new coats of barrier paint which gives about 8 total coats on the hull. Each coat dried for at least 1 full day before the next one was applied. I’m glad this project is in the books and behind us. We drop into the water in just a couple of days!
The Loxodograph 