HI HO HI Ho.....

I spent about 8 hours on the O'day today. I scrubbed up the bottom, ready to receive new bottom paint. I scrubbed the hull and started waxing. Inside I thickened epoxy and used a scrub brush to copy the original faux finish on the ceiling. My art work is a little different than the original but not bad. you wipe the epoxy around in paint tray with the little scrub brush and tap it on the ceiling. It leaves stalagmites but they break of like icicles once hardened. I got a coat of paint over it. Looks OK. 2 more coats tomorrow. Up in the bow I am replacing the old fabric which was pretty tired with a light grey fabric. I bought a big can of contact cement ...but ran out before I finished. Picked up another can on the way home.

The ceiling is coming along. The wife is doing the painting tomorrow. Finally some decent weather.

 Needs a few more coats.

Now it is time to talk about something that I consider the weakest part of sailboat design. I speak of course of the hated mast boot. In my opinion, the current options are delivered by the agents of Satan!!! I just spent a ridiculous amount of time fixing damage directly related to this issue. O'Day or the dealer is partial responsible for this. They cut the hole for the mast and left it unfinished. Water leaked down the useless boot over the years and was sponged up by exposed balsa core. 
What surprises me is that everyone I talk to with a sailboat bitches about it. The mast is not static, you bend it back for tightening the jib, that and wind pressure flexes it at the deck level and your lousy boot eventually leaks. I was offered a 70 dollar boot by the yard but it requied the mast to be pulled. Defender makes a few that wrap around, but they are round and this mast is rectangular in cross section. I follow a few blogs writen by live aboard's and I asked what they do. The answer I received surprised me. 
I was ready to pour two tubes of caulking into the abyss, but they advised me differently.  A toilet bowl wax ring....you heard me.  It makes sense. I pushed neoprene into the gap between the chocks and then pulled the thick wax ring apart. you push it down into the gap and fill it up. The beauty is that it stays flexible and can be easily cleaned off, next time the stick gets pulled. Following that I cut a a rubber wrap from a new inner tube. This is glued and clamped. The last step is that crappy mast tape. The difference this time is that it is just icing on the cake. It always leaks, never stretches as advertised. It no longer matters. I will update tomorrow after we have another day of...errr fun.