In Praise of the Small Boat

“Do. Not. Underestimate. The. Bulwark,” Jeremy muttered as we put the final touch on the first coat of primer on Calypso’s bulwarks. It had taken us 6 hours to do one coat, just on the bulwarks. Okay, the bulwarks also include the covering board, the rub rail, and even the knees for the taffrail, but still. Doing a coat on the entire hull, including the cabinsides, took 2 hours. Something about all the nooks and crannies and 90 degree angles, I guess. But oh my. Brain dead doesn’t begin to describe it.

Fine. That first coat took stupid amounts of time. We lost easily an hour to induction time on too-small pots of paint. (We’re using 2-part paint, which requires combining the base and catalyst and then letting it sit for a certain amount of time before you can use it.) Figuring out what tool to use for the parts (of which there are many) that can’t be done with a roller took some trial and error. Working out our flow (no pun intended, I swear) as we methodically moved along the hull from scaffold to scaffold, trying to keep out of each other’s way and also not put a hand down on fresh paint . . . let’s just say there were a few tense moments.

Once we figured out that we could mix a large batch of paint, the work went much better. No stopping to mix a new batch, losing time and material in the process. Why the pot life is not indicated on the data sheet is beyond us, but at least it’s on the can.

It’s good, though, that Jeremy’s continually-updated spreadsheet/schedule had already set aside one day for sanding in between coats. It’s not that we couldn’t sand and paint in one day. We could. Theoretically. Sanding takes about 6 hours. A coat of paint takes 8. That’s 14 hours and there are 24 hours in a day . . . BITE. YOUR. TONGUE.

This morning I mentioned how glad I am that this boat is not one single inch bigger. Jeremy said, “Yeah, but if we had a bigger boat we couldn’t do it all ourselves and we’d have to hire someone. Maybe that would be better.”

Larry Pardey, in Cruising in Seraffyn, states repeatedly that he wanted a boat small enough to maintain by himself. I’m not sure I completely understood that sentiment until now. You can maintain ANY boat by yourself - it just takes time. At some point the realities of HOW MUCH time that is hits home.

Back to Jeremy’s surprising comment. I thought for a minute. “No. We already don’t hire people because in general it’s too expensive and they don’t do as good a job as we do. That wouldn’t change if we had a bigger boat. Actually, it’d be more to the point because we’d be less inclined to spend more money.”

There is likely some balance we’ve not yet found. A balance between spending money and spending time. Meanwhile, though, we are THRILLED with our small boat and the work we are doing on her.

And yes. We’re THRILLED she’s not one single inch larger.