SmoCo Sailingvideo
[Ep 40] Made It To The Boatyard & Got Our First Project Curveball
6 December 2025 · 17 min · 617 views · El Tomate, Mexico
What this video covers
Armand and Liya haul their 43-foot sailboat Cosmo out of San Carlos Marina — a tide-dependent operation requiring precise timing because the shallow marina limits haul-out windows to roughly once a week.▶ 2:10 The yard uses a tractor-trailer rather than a travel lift, trucking boats about a mile to dry storage.▶ 2:35 The primary goal is stripping multiple layers of antifouling and an unidentified intermediate coat down to bare hull, then applying a barrier coat and Coppercoat.▶ 4:35 Two weeks of hand-sanding with a Ryobi produced less than 5% coverage; a borrowed Bosch 6-inch orbital sander proved dramatically faster but still insufficient.▶ 6:17 They ultimately hired boatyard worker Alejandro to sandblast the hull for $700, versus a quoted $1,500 from another source.▶ 7:08 The first curveball: Alejandro spotted a worn rudder bushing with noticeable play — a problem that, left unfixed offshore, risks progressive cracking where the rudder post meets the hull.▶ 9:36 They decide to drop the rudder and replace the bearing while already hauled out.▶ 10:46 A second project, installing three underwater lights below the waterline, requires drilling holes in the hull, bedding each light with 5200, fiberglassing the interior backing, and roughing the light housings with 80-grit before barrier-coat application.▶ 14:00 Wiring remains incomplete.▶ 16:40 An earlier anchor locker leak repair, done in San Diego, held — the locker was dry after six months.▶ 15:12
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