This morning, while I was lying on my back beneath a gondola
and rolling on bottom paint, I saw this brilliant sight.
What you're looking at is a fiberglass patch with the sun beaming
through the prism of glass cloth and cured resin.
There were several of them:
A total of eight of these little patch jobs had to be made.
When this gondola was put in outdoor storage in New Jersey,
she gathered rain water quite well.
Traditionally maintained gondolas won't hold water like that,
because the seams open up, but fiberglassed boats can become frog ponds
if left full of water.
To avoid this, someone drilled several half-inch wide holes.
Patching the drilled holes wasn't tough.
My gondolier Konner took care of them with no surprises.
We had some long cracks along the chine that presented more
work than expected.
After all the glasswork was done, and the boat was prepped,
Simon and I rolled on the antifouling bottom paint.
Normally this is not a favorite on the task list, but we'd hoped to get it done
a few days earlier, so when we finally got to it, it was a happy occasion.
Greetings from "down under" (the boat, that is).
I've never been so happy roll bottom paint.
Looking forward to launching this gondola even more.
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