The Italian Job!
Almost as exciting as the Italian Job: the bottom paint job on Stops! It involved a stealthy delivery to Alameda under thick fog, life threatening situations (using toxic paints) and a female character who get's saved..(Stops and her bottom). No Mini cars, Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie but apart from that it was exactly the same..
The Italian Job cast included Jon (six degrees) Rheaume and Munzie (home run) Munzel and myself. The first job was getting Stops to Svendson's in Alameda on new year's eve before the haulout crew left.. The deadline was 11am, and Jon and I sailed Stops through thick fog with no more than 30 feet visibility into the oakland channel. We couldn't see anything, big worry was the big ships coming in and out of the channel. In typical hollywood style, gadgetry saved the day.. the raymarine chartplotter with radar overlay on Stops allowed us to navigate without any problem!
Hauling out Stops was a not a pretty sight.. Stop's bottom gave the Great Barrier Reef a run for it's money.. the propeller was almost a world heritage site.. luckily the powerhose got most of it..
Day1: Wet Sanding the Bottom
Jon with Stops old bottom on the hard. We used a rotary wet sander from Svendson's.. It was a tough job and I started faltering but Jon saved the day by pretty much sanding one whole side by himself.
Day 2: Coat 1 of bottom paint.
Munzie ready to fight evil! With the bottom sanding done, Munzie and I donned our super hero suits to thwart the evil bottom paints!
Using advanced weaponry to fend against the evil bottom paints..
Day 3: The finished job!
After the second coat of paint with Jon's help. Jon wishes he could stroke Stop's finished bottom. Alas it is still wet..
Stop's bottom saved.. until next time… hopefully 2 years until Italian Job the sequel.