It is one of the best moment in any boat owner's year - when you put down the antifouling roller and pull off the masking tape round the hull. Antifouling is one of the least pleasant jobs in the annual calendar. Nobody can really claim they enjoy doing it. But there's a huge sense of satisfaction once it's done.
For one thing, the boat looks so much better: transformed from end of season drabness to new season sparkle. And it's a sign that winter is nearly over, and it will soon be relaunch time.
We couldn't believe our luck with the weather this weekend. On Saturday it was sunny and unseasonably warm: ideal conditions for putting underwater primer on our carefully prepared hull.
On Sunday the sun had disappeared behind a blanket of cloud, but the temperature was still well within the tolerance of the paint, and the air was so dry there wasn't any condensation to worry about - none of those annoying trickles from the cockpit drains that always sneakily wait until you have just reached that bit. So we got our first coat of white hard racing on.
It's tricky stuff to apply: doesn't cover convincingly, and pulls off if you go back over it in a misguided attempt to make it look less blotchy. If it hadn't been that our boatyard neighbours had put the same brand on the week before, we could have been seriously worried.
Fortunately, we'd seen how their second coat transformed the job. And as the weather held, and we both managed to arrange our work schedules, we were able to get the second coat on yesterday afternoon - and pull the masking tape off. Three coats in three days, all with ideal weather - how often does that happen in February?
The job isn't completely finished of course. There are still the cradle patches to see to, and the area round the sail drive waiting for the new gasket will also need touching in. And then of course there's the small matter of burnishing it all to smoothness. But in the skipper's words, “we've cracked it.”
It's a great feeling.
