Blacking

During our recent cruising poor Kelly-Louise picked up a few scars.  Mostly from my attempts to enter locks on the Llangollen where the by-washes (the channel used to allow excess water to by-pass the lock) seem to be rather fiery.  Getting back to the mooring on a very windy day also resulted in a small amount of lost paint.
KL is obviously tied against the mooring which made it very difficult to access the side.  The Llangollen Canal is actually a “flowing canal” which can move the boat around.  Moreover, it’s a popular canal so there are many boats passing the mooring.
I needed to work out a technique for holding KL away from the mooring but keep her steady.  This would enable me to rub down the loose paint and remove any surface rust before applying the blacking.  I didn’t want to leave the boat with loose ropes as the wash of a passing boat might have trapped my fingers between the boat and the mooring.
My solution was to use the boat pole.  This as achieved by tying one end to a stern dolly and the other to a mooring fence post.

Having secured the side of KL away from the mooring it was possible to repaint the various scars.  Peter uses a gloss black paint above the upper rubbing strake and a flat black paint below.  When I took the top off the gloss paint I thought it was rather thick and perhaps should be thinned before use.  However the instruction on the can stated the contents we not to be thinned.  What really surprised me was the viscosity of the flat black paint.  When I opened the can it looked like the contents had already partially set.  That’s when I recalled reading how others had mentioned the same situation when blacking their boats.  It proved to be an interesting task trying to get the paint onto the brush…. let alone transfer it from the brush to the hull. 
However one side is now complete and all that is required is to turn the boat so I can repaint the battle scars on the port side.  Everyday I learn more about boat maintenance.