Another new experience - sandblasting the underside to remove all existing anti-fouling paint. There are other ways of doing it like soda blasting and using a chemical peel/paint stripper. It would be a heinous job using any method and way beyond our time-frame and capabilities. We were already over our estimated 3 weeks on the hardstand and we were still working towards a May departure date for New Caledonia with the GoEast Rally, even if that was coming into serious doubt. We entrusted Zofia to the professionals. Once the boat was transported to the shed, taped and wrapped everything was scheduled to commence at 7am the next morning. We spent the night aboard a catamaran belonging to friends and by lunch time the shed screens were lifted to reveal a very raw underside.
Close up of the bow.
The bow-thruster 'tunnel with the blades removed
Keel 
Rudder
Having been taped and wrapped on Monday afternoon she was ready for her
sandblasting to commence first thing on Tuesday. By lunchtime it was
done and by mid afternoon Zofia was back in position.
Wednesday saw workmen crawling all over and under the boat. It was chaotic as they all converged to do their bit. Our rigger was there to reinstate the mast and rig, the turnbuckles having finally arrived from Germany. The steel fabricator arrived to commence work on the bowsprit while at the same time the underside was being attended by yet another team; being draped, raw gelcoat fared then inter-protected before being spray painted. Talk about "all systems go'!
We could barely watch the mast and rig being replaced.
Lots of faring to smooth the surface
The inter-protect 'paint' forms a hard layer over the gelcoat and must still be tacky when the first anti-fouling layer is applied so that there is a chemical bond between the two. If the delay between application of the layers is too long, all the anti-foul paint will wash off when pressure sprayed at the next lift. The Bloke decided that the risk of not getting the timing right and getting a good result was too great so we opted to have the painting done professionally. Having seen it done, he believes that it was doable really, but the professionals had it all done in less than a day and doing it ourselves would have added yet more days to our time in the works area....oh, and more anxiety too.
More faring after the first layer of inter-protect.
Finally, 3 layers of Micron Extra 2.
The first layer used was red followed by 2 black coats, the idea being the red shows through when it's time to anti-foul again.
Blushing red
And in no time, 2 coats of black to finish off.
All of a sudden, Zofia was transformed and looking like a yacht again. Perhaps we'd be returned to the water ahead of a Covid forced shutdown after all.
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