Isola Naida

Tag: Boat Work

Shore Life: A Refreshing New Look

We’ve been progressing the work on Isola Naida as spring continues. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to be consistent in executing any single project from start to finish on account of the Nova Scotia spring. We take advantage of the sunny days when we have them to progress work on Isola Naida’s new look. When the rain comes, which is often, we retreat back inside to work on mechanical systems and to find all of the leaks that we need to address when the sunny days return.

In our last post we made a list of the jobs we need to complete before Isola Naida splashes in a few weeks. This week, we’re looking at the progress made giving Isola Naida’s hull a fresh look as we head into the season.

Bottom Paint

A few weeks ago, D’Arcy used painter’s tape to mask Isola Naida’s boot stripe then donned a paint suit, face mask, and gloves. Equipped with his trusty DeWalt random orbital sander and just enough 120 grit sandpaper to get through the job, he gave gave the bottom paint a thorough sanding. Isola Naida’s bottom paint was not in bad condition, though the underside of the keel lacked paint coverage. After smoothing out any uneven surfaces and giving the existing paint a consistent tooth, D’Arcy thoroughly mixed two gallons of Petit HRT Unepoxy – Black.

A full coat of fresh bottom paint was applied to the hull. High-friction areas received a second coating: the waterline, the bow, and the rudder. When we’re lifted from the stands in a few weeks, the areas that were missed will get a coat of paint before we touch the water.

Removing Old Vinyls

Isola Naida’s vinyl decals were aging and beginning to chip away. The large blue serif lettering was dated and bulky. We wanted to breathe some new life into Isola Naida’s appearance. When we purchased Isola Naida in July 2025, we changed her port of registry from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We were going to have to remove some of the decals and decided this would be a good time to replace them all.

It took a few days of work dodging the rainy weather, but we eventually had all of the old vinyl removed. The adhesive was persistent, but nothing that acetone and a microfiber cloth couldn’t handle with a little bit of elbow grease.

New Vinyls

We used PhotoPea to mock up various font faces before finally settling on a font called Lemonmilk. On 16 May, Noelle made her way across Halifax to HFXVinyl. Despite the limited colour selection we had decided that we were going to choose from the Oracal 751C line of vinyl. We had originally had our hearts set on choosing a grey vinyl but the Oracal 751C grey was too light a shade for the white of the hull. We settled on glossy black instead.

On 17 May, D’Arcy set up the Cricut on the kitchen island of our apartment and laid out the required cuts before weeding the vinyl and adhering them to the transfer tape.

Adhering the new vinyls took a lot of patience marking out lines with masking tape, stepping back dozens of times to make sure that the lines appeared straight, despite the complicated compound curves of the hull. Before the vinyls were permanently affixed to the hull the area was cleaned, polished, polished again, and wiped down with acetone to ensure the best possible adhesion. Afterward, the polished area was waxed to protect the sheen and the vinyls while we continued polishing the rest of the hull.

Near Mirror Finish

Starting 17 May, D’Arcy began the process of polishing Isola Naida’s hull. We’re not sure when the hull was last polished, but it didn’t take much to get the gel coat gleaming again. Before polishing, the hull was washed with Meguiar’s Boat Wash and rinsed with fresh water. Any staining was treated with CRC’s On & Off.

We used 3M Perfect-It EX AC Rubbing Compound and a lambswool polishing pad to polish the hull. Isola Naida has a painted cove stripe and boot stripe, so we had to be careful not to polish over the paint with the lambs wool pad. We were able to skip over the cove stripe easily enough. For the boot stripe we needed to mask off the paint, polish to the tape, then pull off the tape and hand buff the boot stripe. We followed polishing the hull with a coat of Meguiar’s Flagship Premium Marine Wax to protect the finish. We’ll re-apply more wax part-way through the season to continue protecting the hull from the elements.

What’s Next?

With the hull work complete we can turn our focus topside and inside. Before we splash we’ll need to give Isola Naida’s standing rigging a thorough inspection as well as finish rigging the main and mizzen sails. We have some mechanical work to do such as installing the new impeller for our engine’s water pump, inspecting hose clamps, re-packing the stuffing box, and completing our survey of seacocks and through-hulls.

Work won’t stop when we splash either. There’s an extensive list of deck hardware that requires re-seating to eliminate slow leaks and some aesthetic work to complete over the course of the summer.

Follow along with our progress here! You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook.

May 21, 2026
Shore Life: Spring Maintenance & Preparing Isola Naida for the New Season

We’re back!
After a long winter hiatus, we’ve finally returned to the shipyard and to Isola Naida to begin our spring maintenance. Like many boat projects, progress over the winter was… aspirational at best. Work schedules, weather, and life in general got in the way, so most of our “boat time” went into planning instead of executing.

That planning time wasn’t wasted. It made us more eager to get back aboard Isola Naida and start bringing those ideas to life. Now, with spring finally here, the real work begins.

Winter Break: Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Our last update was at the end of October. Before stepping away, we tackled a few key jobs. We cleaned the hull, removed the sails, and created a plan to protect Isola Naida through the winter.

Unfortunately, our winter cover didn’t live up to expectations.

Within a few weeks, we realized the setup wouldn’t hold up to the elements. It worked temporarily, but we couldn’t rely on it long term. We’ll treat that as a lesson learned.

This year, we’re building a proper winter cover. We’ll document that process in a future post.

Spring Plans: Spring Maintenance & Refit Checklist

Instead of tackling projects at random, we’ve divided the work into two groups. Some tasks need to be completed before launch, while others can wait until we’re back in the water.

Before Splashing

Before we launch Isola Naida, we have a long list of jobs that require us to stay ashore or are much easier to complete on land.

Hull Work

This season is all about giving Isola Naida a refreshed look below and above the waterline. That means prepping and painting the bottom, removing the old vinyl decals, and bringing the hull back to life with a full polish and wax.

We’ll be cutting and applying a new set of decals before the hull is waxed. We’re still narrowing down our preferred look, but we have a few weeks left to make that decision.

Water Systems

Above all else, we want to make sure the essentials are solid.

We’ll be inspecting and cleaning all three water tanks, and refinishing them where needed. Isola Naida has a massive amount of water storage onboard and we want to ensure that it is accessible when required, and safe to consume, and that starts with clean tanks.

Motor & Drive System

While we prefer to be under sail, the reality is that nobody wants to be caught out without a reliable motor. Our Yanmar 4JH4E is one of the most reliable motors out there and we want to do everything we can to keep it that way.

We’ll be getting the motor ready for the season, checking the packing, and replacing anything that looks questionable. It’s much easier to deal with these things at the dock than out at sea.

After Splashing

A few of our projects this year can don’t need to be completed before we’re in the water. In fact, some of these projects may take most of the year to actually accomplish, but that’s okay because we get to make our own timeline with these projects!

Fuel Systems

The Reliance 44’s primary fuel tank is integrated into the fiberglass structure of the keel. Isola Naida’s keel tank has a history of water contamination which her previous owners were unable to mitigate successfully. As such, her keel tank has gone unused for some time.

We intend to flush and isolate the keel tank before refilling it with biodegradable antifreeze to provide the intended ballast and to provide colour indicator incase we find that the tank is compromised.

We’ll also be replacing the fuel pump which feeds the liquid pre-heater in order to provide on-demand heat throughout the boat.

Topsides

We’ll be sanding and refinishing the toe rails, hatches, and cockpit brightwork, followed by multiple coats of varnish to bring everything back to life. There’s nothing quite like freshly varnished wood to make a boat feel cared for again.

We’re also planning to pattern and sew custom hatch covers to help deflect rain weather and protect the brightwork of the hatches over time – and don’t worry, we won’t be completely preventing air flow with these covers, we’ll share more about the design of these covers in a future post.

Salon

Inside Isola Naida, our focus is on making the space more comfortable, functional, and bright.

Not only is a deep-clean in order, we’ll also be progressing storage improvements and refreshing the look and feel of the interior by making all new salon cushions using a light-coloured, durable canvas material to really help brighten the space.

Looking Ahead

There’s no shortage of work ahead of us this season. Some of it is routine, some of it is long overdue, and some of it will almost certainly take more time and effort than we expect. That’s all just part of the adventure.

We’ve already started making progress on a few of these projects, and we’ll be sharing those updates in upcoming posts as we go. There’s something satisfying about finally moving from planning into executing, and it feels good to be back aboard again.

This will be our first full season with Isola Naida, and we’re looking forward to making the most of it!

If you’d like to follow along in real time, you can find us on Instagram and Facebook, where we share more frequent updates from the yard and beyond. And if you haven’t already, consider joining our growing community! We’re glad to have you along for the journey.

April 28, 2026
Shore Life: Cleaning the Hull, Removing Sails, and Preparing for Winter
The last two weeks have been busy here ashore, but work continues aboard Isola Naida as we prepare for the arrival of winter. We took advantage of the weather over the last two weekends to get more work done on the exterior of the boat. The calm conditions this past weekend provided the perfect opportunity to remove her sails and pack them away for the season. We also took some measurements and developed a plan to fabricate a reusable winter cover for Isola Naida which, we hope, we will serve us well for years to come.

De-Staining the Hull

On 18 October, D’Arcy took the day to get some work down aboard. As is often the case, the list of planned jobs proved to be more ambitious than time would allow. The weather was cool but dry, making it a good opportunity to tackle the staining around Isola Naida’s hull and give her a good cleaning.

There are many hull-cleaning products on the market, all promising to remove stains without damaging the gelcoat. Having worked in the shipyard for some time, D’Arcy is familiar with CRC Marine’s On & Off, a muriatic acid–based cleaner that’s excellent for removing heavy staining and barnacles. Since Isola Naida’s hull wasn’t in terrible condition, and for reasons of cost and availability, we decided to try Marine Spray Nine Marine’s Boat Bottom, a phosphoric acid–based cleaner that’s gentler but still effective on general staining.

Overall, Boat Bottom did a respectable job of lightening the stains on Isola Naida’s hull, and the results look quite good in photos. In person, some shadowing remains, and a few barnacles along the boot stripe will still need attention. Perhaps reason enough to invest in a bottle of On & Off next time.

Removing the Sails

On 26 October, we made our way to Isola Naida to cross a few more items off the to-do list. The main task for the day was to take advantage of the calm forecast to remove and fold the main and mizzen sails for storage. Both came down smoothly. We laid the main sail across the boom to dry out in the sun after the previous week’s rain.

Before long, a large dark cloud rolled in from the north, and the wind began to pick up. Not wanting to risk losing or damaging the sail, we quickly rolled and tied it, then passed it over the side to stow in the Jeep, safe from the weather. Later in the day, we brought the sail to one of the storage buildings in the yard to lay out and refold properly before leaving for the day.

Preparing for Winter

With colder weather on the way, we’ve been developing a plan to cover Isola Naida and protect her from snow and ice. Around the yard, we’ve seen a wide variety of winter cover solutions. Many owners opt to shrink-wrap their boats – effective, but costly, with prices hovering around $1,000 for a vessel of Isola Naida’s size. That’s had us exploring alternatives.

A custom-fabric cover would be ideal, but the cost would still be high. It’s something we might pattern and sew ourselves in the future. Some owners insist that only the cockpit needs to be covered to protect electronics, since the decks should already be weather-tight. While that makes sense, we’d still prefer to shield as much of the deck as possible, particularly the wooden hatches, which could suffer from freeze–thaw cycles over the winter months.

After some research, we’ve narrowed our framing options down to three main solutions:
Solution 1 – Aluminum Conduit

Pros

Can be bent to any desired arch or headroom

Strong, durable, and long-lasting

Connects easily along a centre-line spine
Solution 2 – PVC Pipe

Pros

Can be flexed or heated to form arched shapes

Connects with standard tee and cross fittings

Lightweight and affordable
Solution 3 – Timber A-Frame

Pros

Low-cost and simple to construct

Fully customizable with basic tools
Cons

More expensive than other materials

Requires specialized bending tools or pre-bent sections

Heavier than PVC, though lighter than wood
Cons

Can become brittle in extreme cold

May crack under heavy snow loads
Cons

Heaviest option, especially when vaulted

Susceptible to moisture and rot

Difficult to transport and store long lengths
At the moment, we’re leaning toward the PVC pipe framing solution. It offers the best balance of flexibility, cost, and strength — allowing us to create arched ribs connected to a centre spine that maximizes headroom under the tarp while supporting winter snow loads.

For the tarp itself, we’ve sourced a 30′ x 60′ (9.14 m x 18.28 m) sheet, large enough to cover the full length of the boat and its framing. We’ll need to cut openings along the centreline to accommodate the masts and furlers. These cuts will be reinforced with tuck tape and lined with grommets so the edges can be re-stitched once the tarp is in place. Finally, the tarp’s lower edges will be lashed beneath the hull to keep it secure against the wind.

Until Next Week!

As we move closer to winter, we’re eager to get Isola Naida tucked safely beneath her cover and ready for the months ahead. If you’ve built your own winter frame or have tips for keeping a boat protected through harsh weather, we’d love to hear from you! Your experience could help shape our next steps. You can share your thoughts in the comments below or connect with us on Instagram and Facebook, where we post regular updates and photos from life aboard and ashore.
October 31, 2025
Boat Work: Caribe RHIB Repair Project
When we took stewardship of Isola Naida, we also adopted her tender, a Caribe Nautica MVPL-10 Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB). Caribe has long been known for their quality inflatable boats and we were excited to have a RHIB as a tender – their stability and carrying capacity is unmatched. Now that we have the boat out of the water for the season we’re able to address the leaks and prepare the tender for next season.

Before

We knew at the time we bought Isola Naida that the starboard and bow sponsons of our RHIB each suffered a slow leak. This meant that we’ve had to reinflate two of the three sponsons daily. The previous owners hadn’t had the opportunity to haul her our and go on a leak-finding mission.

Isola Naida’s tender alongside the dock at South Shore Marine

Isola Naida’s tender alongside the dock at South Shore Marine
The Vision

Our goal is to uncover and clean the tender in order to identify any leaks and any areas with the potential to cause an issue in the future. After the leaks are identified, we will address each one by affixing a patch. Any areas of significant wear we will attempt to reinforce with patching material.

In a separate but related project we will sew a new tube cover which will be reinforced with plastic sheeting to act as a durable protective barrier for the Hypalon sponsons moving forward.
The Plan

The plan is as follows:

Wash and scrub the RHIB with soapy water for an initial clean and to help identify leaks

Wash and scrub the RHIB with Spray Nine to further clean and degrease the RHIB

Sand area around identified leaks to prepare for patching

Wash sanded area with Acetone to ensure patch adherence

Apply two part adhesive to sponson and patch material

Test sponsons to ensure all leaks have been addressed.
Step 1: Soap Wash

On 27 September, D’Arcy took advantage of the tender being our of the water to begin cleaning the boat and finding leaks. Using a spray bottle with a 1:4 mixture of Dawn dish soap to water, he began spraying sections of the sponsons and used a stiff bristle brush to help remove dirt and lather the soap. Lathering the soap helps to create an even distribution of bubbles which further helps the larger bubbles formed by air leaks to stand out.

We quickly discovered five leaks – four were pinhole leaks and one was a very fine slice. All of the leaks were located on the starboard bow of the boat. This bit of information immediately exposed the culprit: Isola Naida’s boarding ladder!

Isola Naida’s ladder swings over the port side toe-rail and hinges at the midpoint. When the lower half of the ladder is in the upright position instead of lowered into the water, the ends of the stainless steel tubing that makes up the ladder is exposed. This happens to be the perfect height for making contact with the RHIB’s sponsons. This was a known issue which we had discussed with Isola Nadia’s previous owners.

The fine slice on the starboard bow

Pinhole leak mid-ships starboard side.

Pinhole above the old registration plate

Pinhole leak, top of the starboard bow

Isola Naida’s tender without tube covers

Step 2: Degreasing

On 5 October, D’Arcy returned to degrease the tender and perform a deeper cleaning. This also ensured that we hadn’t missed any leaks in our original search. We used Marine Spray Nine Heavy Duty cleaner to degrease the Hypalon sponsons and the interior hull.

In the process, we removed the old North Carolina registration plates that had been affixed to the port and starboard side sponsons. This exposed some more spots where the neoprene outer layer of material had been separated from the Hypalon backing. We’ll reinforce these areas when we patch the leaks to help protect the sponsons as much as possible.

We won’t be able to reinforce the handles at this point. Structurally they are fine, repairs to the handles are purely cosmetic. We’ve made a note to address the handles in the future.

Step 3 & 4: Sand Surface, Acetone repair site

We ran out of warm weather in October, so it didn’t make sense to continue the dinghy project at that time. On 23 May, we finally had a weather window with acceptable temperatures for the two part epoxy adhesive to cure. The sponsons were reinflated to confirm the locations of the leaks before being deflated slightly to prevent excessive outward pressure building beneath the patches.

D’Arcy carefully taped a perimeter around each repair site using the patch material as a guide. He then used a Dremel tool with a spherical sandpaper flap wheel (the stone bit wouldn’t fit onto the tool) to prepare the surface of the sponsons. After the surface material was removed entirely, a quick hand sanding with 180 grit sandpaper ensured the surface had enough tooth for the adhesive to adhere properly. The Hypalon side of the patch material was also sanded with 180 grit sandpaper.

A light wipe with acetone over the exposed Hypalon fabric ensured that the surface was clean and dry. Acetone will damage the PVC exterior layer, so it’s important not to wipe beyond the repair site.

The starboard side of the dinghy deflated completely over the winter.

Reinflated to work on the sponsons

Repair sites taped and sanded

Glue applied to repair sites to dry

Glue applied to patches to dry

Tape removed and patches applied

Tape removed and patches applied

Step 5: Two Part Adhesive

With everything sanded and prepared, the two part epoxy resin was mixed with 5% hardener. After the adhesive was thoroughly mixed a thin layer of the adhesive was applied to the repair sites and to the back of the patches. This layer of adhesive was left to dry for 10 minutes. This allows the adhesive to secure itself to the material itself.

The final step was to apply the patches one at a time. A second layer of adhesive was applied to the repair site (the tape was removed at this point) and a layer of adhesive was applied to the reverse of the patch. The patch was then pressed onto the surface of the repair site. The tip of a large marker was used to press the material from the middle outward ensuring full spread and adhesion.

The patches were then carefully covered to prevent exposure to direct sunlight.

Step 6: Inflate and Test

The sponson won’t be pressurized for more 24 hours after the repairs, so we’ll have to wait to confirm that there are no more leaks. We’ll update this part of the post when we have more information about the success of the repairs.

Reinflated to work on the sponsons
October 7, 2025
Hauling-Out, Beginning Boatwork and a Surprising Message

Every haul-out marks a turning point in the sailing season, and this year was no exception for Isola Naida. After a busy summer on the water, we brought her to East River Shipyard to be hauled out, onto the hard for winter. What followed was a week of planning boat projects, uncovering the source of our tender’s persistent leaks, and receiving a message that connected us to Isola Naida’s very first owner—an unexpected reminder of the stories carried within her hull.

Hauling Out

With Isola Naida tied up at East River Shipyard, it took a few days of planning before she was ready to haul out. The first job was dropping her furler headsails. D’Arcy managed to remove both on his own. The staysail came down easily in a light breeze, but the genoa required a completely calm day. By Friday afternoon, 19 September, we were finally on the schedule for haul-out.

D’Arcy, Matt, and another shipyard crew member, Chris, worked together to get Isola Naida off the dock and into the travel lift well. The winds had picked up out of the north-northwest, pushing us back against the dock. The cockpit curtains acted like sails, making it even harder to maneuver under power. With some careful fending-off, we managed to push her back, reverse into the wind, then power forward into the larger of the two wells. Because of our forestay furler, the yard opted to use the bigger lift to avoid clearance issues.

We decided to secure on the windward side of the well. It was trickier, since the wind was blowing directly across the entrance, but this way we could tie her securely to the wharf and center her under the lift without staying aboard, otherwise we’d be pulling all 29,000 pounds of her off the leeward wall.

With the straps carefully positioned and secured around her full keel, Isola Naida was slowly raised out of the ocean. Her bottom was in good shape, with growth mostly clustered around the rudder and keel. We didn’t have time to pressure wash her right away, so that will be a job for later while she rests in her stands.

From there, the travel lift rolled her ashore, where she was transferred onto a large trailer for the slow, steady climb up the hill to the storage yard. Once in position, we worked with the yard crew to set her keel blocks, place her stands, and secure her for the winter.

With Isola Naida finally on the hard, we can turn our focus to winter refit plans and the long list of boat projects waiting to be tackled.

Tender Care

One of the first projects is our RHIB tender. Two of her three sponsons have slow leaks, meaning we’ve had to reinflate her every single time we head out. Step one was removing the custom navy-blue cover made by the previous owners. While it offered good sun protection, it was showing its age and won’t be salvageable.

With the cover off, D’Arcy inspected all of the seams and joints along the PVC tubes. The material is weathered, but in decent shape – no major tears, just a few abrasions to reinforce, plus an oarlock that needs to be reattached. To hunt for leaks, we mixed dish soap and water in a spray bottle and coated the tender. Surprisingly, none of the seams or abrasions were leaking. Instead, we discovered a fine slice in the starboard bow tube, plus several pinhole punctures along the bow and starboard side. The culprit? Almost certainly Isola Naida’s boarding ladder.

Now that we’ve located the leaks, we’ll be ordering PVC fabric to patch the problem areas. We also plan to reinforce a few stress points to prevent future punctures. More on that process will be coming in a future post.

A Surprising Message

This past week, we received a message through Instagram that stopped us in our tracks. The sender’s last name was immediately familiar: Hochwald. It turned out to be Mike Hochwald, son of Ulrich Hochwald. Ulrich was the very first owner of Isola Naida, and the man who built her from a bare hull.

Mike shared pieces of her early history with us. Ulrich ordered the hull from Reliance Sailing Craft Co., Ltd. in Montreal in 1975 while the family was living in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In 1976, once completed, the hull was shipped to their home in Manuels, Conception Bay South, Newfoundland. Her diesel engine, purchased from one of the local Indigenous bands near Thunder Bay, was loaded into the back of their Chevy van for the move east.

For the next eight and a half years, Ulrich worked on Isola Naida in the backyard of the family home. Mike even recalled the winter of 1983, when an ice storm knocked out power. That night, dinner was cooked on Isola Naida’s diesel stove, lit by the glow of kerosene lamps.

Mike has kindly offered to share more of her history with us, which we’re eager to learn. Since we’ve been planning a passage to Newfoundland as part of our steps to crossing the Atlantic, the thought of meeting Ulrich in person someday makes this story even more special.

An Invigorating Week

From hauling out and tackling boat projects, to uncovering a piece of our Isola Naida’s past, this week has been full of reminders of how much story Isola Naida carries with her.
Have you ever dsicovered a surprising piece of history of something you owned? A boat, a house, or something else? Tell us about it in the comments below!

If you’re curious to follow along with our winter refit and Isola Naida’s unfolding story, make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss what’s next. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube for more!

September 30, 2025
Boat Work: Starboard Settee Storage Project
When we first saw Isola Naida, we were quite content with the finishes and workmanship onboard. Is she the most beautiful boat in the world? No, but she was in good shape that and just needed to be maintained. We’ve had Isola Naida for a few months now and just like owning a home, we’ve found some things that we would like to improve upon to make her our own. The first project on our list of boat work cleaning and refinishing under the salon settee. This is the Starboard Settee Storage Project.

Before

Under Isola Naida’s salon settee, like many boats, is a storage space directly on top of the interior of the hull. Hull interiors are often left in a state of finish that is livable but not refined. The inner layer of fiberglass cloth tends to cure with dimples. The builder may have spilled resin that cured in globs and were never sanded smooth. None of this is an actual concern – it’s not meant to be seen, so who cares, right?

Isola Naida’s starboard settee in the salon.

Inside of the hatch lid and the bilge area was all painted with bilgekoat.

Chipping paint and the yellowing that has occurred over time.

Another shot showing some of the wear in these spaces.
The Vision

Our goal is to re-finish the interior of the hull in this area so that it is smooth, at least, as smooth as we can get it without tearing out the settee. From there we’ll apply a fresh coat of white bilge paint to protect the interior of the hull from any spills that may occur. Finally, we’ll install soft white LED strip lights that illuminate the storage space when the hatch is opened.

Since we aren’t living aboard Isola Naida yet, we aren’t sure how we are going to use this space yet. In the future, when we’ve figured that out, we’ll make containers or dividers that will help keep the space organized in all conditions. Smoothing the hull will help by providing a more uniform surface for those containers or dividers to be designed for.
The Plan

The plan is as follows:

Sand hull with 60 grit followed by 120 grit

Fair hull to fill and smooth surface

Sand fairing with 60 grit followed by 120 grit

Repeat steps 2 & 3 as required

Paint with Interlux Bilgekote

Mount and Connect lighting and switches
Step 1: Sanding

On 15 August, D’Arcy was aboard Isola Naida to being the process of sanding. Being on the mooring ball and having to rely on the house batteries and solar system, we hoped that we would be able to avoid needing power sanders to complete this project. Hand sanding did surprisingly well, but the process would have taken multiple days to get anywhere near the finish we would like. To make matters worse, the small Shop-Vac was onboard didn’t contain a filter – something we should have checked for before using it – causing the vacuum to blast sanding dust throughout Isola Naida.

D’Arcy returned a few days later with with a random orbital sander and a his personal shop vacuum. We weren’t sure how much the vacuum or the sander would draw on the electrical system, all we could do was monitor the use and stop if required.

We quickly discovered that the shop vacuum and the orbital sander combined caused too much draw causing the breaker to the inverter to trip. So began the process of running the sander then quickly switching to the vacuum to collect as much dust out of the air as possible.

Results of the oribtal sander in the aft storage locker

Another view in the aft storage locker

The forward locker didn’t get much hand sanding

The orbital sander made pretty light work of this space

Results of the forward storage locker

3M Marine Premium Filler applied in the forward locker

3M Marine Premium Filler applied in the aft locker

Step 2: Fairing

It took a few days to get back to the project between working, racing, and other responsibilities. On 29 August, D’Arcy returned to Isola Naida to apply fairing compound to the inside of the hull in the storage lockers. We decided to use 3M Marine Premium Filler, both due to its availability locally and based on the recommendations from professionals.

The filler is a two part mixture consisting of the filler product and a hardener cream, mixed in a roughly 50:1 ratio. Working time is less than 10 minutes, so it is important to only mix as much as you can apply quickly. We found that 200ml was pushing the limits for our application. The filler mixes up green hardens to a lighter shade of green when applied. We applied the filler with a hand spreader. This filler is ready to sand within 30 minutes, but it would be a few days before we could get back aboard to continue working.

Steps 3 & 4: Sand, Rinse, Repeat

D’Arcy was aboard again on 31 August to sand, touchup fairing and paint the storage lockers. After sanding the fairing with 60 grit sandpaper to knock down imperfections and high spots, the whole surface was sanded with 120 grit sandpaper to give the surface a tooth for the paint to grip onto. The surface was vacuumed and given wipe down with acetone. Sanding exposed a few spots that needed more attention, so new fairing was applied in these spots. The 3M Marine Premium Filler has a 30 minute set up time, which was perfect for a lunch break before sanding once more.

Aft storage locker sanded with 120 grit.

Forward storage locker sanded with 120 grit.

Aft storage locker painted with Bilgekote

Forward storage locker painted with Bilgekote

Undersides of the lids painted with Bilgekote

Undersides of the lids painted with Bilgekote

Final Result

Step 5: Painting

After vacuuming as much of the dust as possible, and wiping down all surfaces with a acetone, a coat of white Interlux Bilgekote was applied. Bilgekote is an enamel paint designed to protect against water, oil and other contaminates from damaging the wood or fiberglass. The paint was applied using a wool roller wherever possible to achieve a consistent finish. In some of the nooks and crannies, it was necessary to use a brush. In these locations care was taken to apply the paint as smoothly as possible.

It wasn’t possible to get coverage on every surface due to space restrictions, so we’ll need to revisit painting to touch-up those surfaces.

Steps 5 Continued

A quick stop aboard Isola Naida on 8 September provided the perfect opportunity to do some touch-up painting and apply a second coat of Bilgekote to the inside of the storage lockers. The previous coat didn’t provide great coverage in all areas, and some of the upper corners needed to be painted by hand.

A fresh second coat of paint.

Much better coverage in the aft locker looking forward..

And looking aft.

Much better coverage in the forward locker looking forward.

Also, looking aft.

Undersides of the settee looking at the powered magnetic reed switch

Inside the larger storage locker looking forward

Final Result

When closed the light stays off.

As the lid opens the light turns on

The lighting makes these spaces much more visible

Step 6: Mounting & Wiring

It’s been a busy few weeks since we were last able to focus on this project. We were able to run the wiring from the electrical panel to the settee on a previous visit. We made as many wiring connections as we could during that visit. On 2 November, D’Arcy was back on Isola Naida to finish off the installation of the lights, magnetic reed switches, and do some cable management.

The LED strip arrived with a connector wired to the leading end of the strip which made the first length of lights an easy installation. Heat-shrink wire connectors were used to connect the positive and negative leads to the magnetic read switch and the negative wire heading back to the panel.

The smaller locker proved to be a bit more of an undertaking. We opted to solder directly to the LED strip instead of ordering strip connectors. It took more attempts that D’Arcy would like to admit, but eventually we had a working circuit. To help ensure that everything stays in place, we applied a spot of hot glue over the soldered connections and between the wires to both strengthen the connection and prevent leverage being applied to the soldered points. Finally, a piece of heat-shrink tubing was applied over everything; really solidifying the connection.

The final step was to install everything to the underside of the settee. Small screws were used to hold the switches in place. The LED strip was stuck on using the 3M Adhesive backing (which we are expecting to fail in the future, at which point we will explore other solutions). For cable management, D’Arcy 3D printed cable clips to hold the wires in place. These were screwed in as necessary to tidy everything up.

With that, the Starboard Settee Storage Project is complete! In the future, we’re hoping to add the same lighting feature to the Port Settee. Thanks for following along with this project. The next big project will be to patch our Caribe RHIB.
September 7, 2025