RESTORATION
| Paint works
Photograph by James Bates
While still in Canha, after all the repair work on the hull had been done, we completely sanded the hull back to the primer coat that had been applied to protect the steel after having been re-plated where the hull's thickness was lower than 3mm. We then sprayed two coats of 2 part-epoxy primer Jotamastic 90 by Jotun both on the inside and on the outside of the hull, followed by two coats of 2 part-epoxy Hardtop XP, also by Jotun.
At Doca de Belém we re-sanded the outside of the hull and had Optimista sprayed twice again with another 2 coats of Jotun Hardtop XP.
We replaced the water line and painted the bottom of the hull with International antifouling paint system: 2 coats of Gelshild200 and 2 coats of Micron350, just before she went back in the water in August 2020. She has since been taken out of the water and antifouling paint has been reapplied.