HAULING OUT AT MARINA FLAMENCO
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| At 23', Domino just makes it into the lift |
September 22, 2013
Panama City, Panama
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| A long ramp. There is a 3-hour optimum slot at high tide. Make an appointment! |
It has been three years since our last haulout at Peake’s in Trinidad and it was time for a little bottom paint before crossing the Pacific next week. So, last Monday, we showed up at Marina Flamenco and got to work. But before I get into the specifics of this haulout, let’s review the choices for haulout in Panama.
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| This always makes us nervous: DOMINO airborne! |
Caribbean side, it’s SHELTER BAY Marina.
The good: they accept very wide catamarans, although the wide loads must stay at the top of the ramp since the trailer does not carry the “Wide-Ones” to the yard.
The bad: price. Shelter “Pay” Marina, sadly, deserves its nickname. ‘nuff said.
The ugly: the quality of the work. Last Spring, Lyman Morse was in charge of the yard, but that stopped quickly when complaints about shoddy work started to pile-up. Best do the work yourself.
Green Turtle Marina near Linton is a work in progress… to be checked on.
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| Props: not too badly infested. The trailing edge of the hull and leading edge of the rudder post show wear. Paint needed. |
Pacific side,it’s FLAMENCO MARINA and QUALITY Yachts.
Some yachties have used the yard at Vacamonte to haul out their wide Cats, but Vacamonte serves large commercial ships, big steel barges and all, and workers there have no consideration for fragile fiberglass ships.
Small yachts and sailboats have successfully used the ramps at the Balboa Yacht Club. There are two ramps there, a smaller and a larger one. If you don’t mind working on an incline, it’s a possiblity. Still, the prices are going up; I heard last week one yachtie being quoted $150/day for the large ramp, all services and fees included.
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| The bottom of the skegs need serious attention. The rest of the hull needs washing, sanding and a coat of paint. |
But, back to FLAMENCO MARINA. We have no complaint.
The good:
- The 150-ton lift's operator did a good job and got us in and out without a scratch.
- Power wash! The kid who power-washed the boat did a fantastic job, saving me 2 days of cleaning. Scraping barnacles was included. “All” I had left to do was sanding.
- The yard gate was open for us from 0600 to 1800. A long day.
- There were no surprises with the bill. Better, we managed to discount some of the items.
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| The bows need attention: fairing, priming, 1 red coat, and 2 black. |
The bad:
- Scaffoldings are almost unheard of. We relied on our old chairs and a 9’ long board for scaffolding. Lots of moving and dragging that thing around.
- Although we were allowed to do our own work, we were charged a premium for “hiring workers alien to Quality Yachts” (i.e. JP and I). We got a 50% discount on that charge… paying to do the work ourselves!
- We were not allowed to sleep on board and had to exit the yard by 1800. Fortunately, our friend Claude let us stay at his apartment in town.
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| Some red is showing under the shelf: more wear in that spot. Paint thicker this time. The water intake grille: tricky fit or flat surface on curved hull... creative caulking. New screws as well. |
The ugly: I’m sad to say, but most of the workers were useless, except for “Columbia,” the kid who power-washed the hulls. I called him “Columbia” because he told me he was from that country, hoping to benefit from the good reputation that Columbian workers have around here. On the last day, I found out that he was a local kid, born just a few miles from Panama City. It’s no surprise, though, that the hard-working kids should try to get an edge. I asked one other kid to sweep the barnacles from under the boat after the power wash: THREE HOURS later, he was still in the process, splitting his time between the broom and the cell phone/texting. The “Tall” guy who was supposed to help us tape the waterline was nowhere to be seen when the time came. Meanwhile, they kept telling me to wet-sand for a quicker job and less dust (a poor result in the long run) or asking if they could paint (while texting.) Not a chance we would hire those guys. We wanted things done; we rolled up our sleeves.
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| The joy of scraping the props! Note the heavier wear at the exit of the propshaft: heavier application this time. |
This is what we did.
- Day one, afternoon: JP removed 3 damaged seacocks while I cleaned the props.
- Day two: JP patched-up the skegs. The workers in Brazil and Trinidad who had previously worked on the skegs had laminated over existing antifouling paint. Result: delamination. JP also re-installed the water intake grills (flat surfaces trying to hug curved hulls), changed a bunch of screws in various places, while I dry-sanded one 65’ hull.
- Day three: JP re-installed all the seacocks, sanded, faired (Awlfair: magic!) and primed all the new lamination while I dry-sanded the second 65’ hull.
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| All areas of higher turbulence have been re-faired, primed and painted with a coat of red Seahawk. Two more coats coming up. JP is fairing, priming and sanding the area under the zinc anodes. |
- Day four: JP painted the 1st coat of Seahawk 44 (red) on the primed areas, rolled some black antifouling on the worn areas and taped the waterline while I wiped the hulls from the dust, then cleaned them with thinner. Imagine a 130’–long hull on a monohull, that’s an awful lot of shoulder rotations. I felt like the Karate Kid, “Wax on, Wax off,” and after 120 square meter (1,300 sq.feet) of hull prep, I was ready to roll some paint! Coordination was a must as we tried not to bump into each-other. Finally, on the afternoon of day four, at 1400, we started painting… done by 1800. 120m2
- Morning of day five: JP reconnected all systems while I removed rust stains on the white hull (rust… rust… rust from those steel screws in cowling vents) and polished above waterline. More Karate Kid stuff!
By 1300, we were ready to go.
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| Chairs and ladders! We're just about ready to splash. That leaves me an hour to shine those 84cm props! |
No, we didn’t paint 3 coats everywhere. Our scheme is 2 coats of primer, one coat of red antifouling, 2 coats of black antifouling. This allows us to see where the paint wears out most and directs us for subsequent application(s). The bow entry, the aft corners, areas around the propshaft, the skegs are some of the more turbulent areas and in those places the paint wears out faster. So, the scheme was thus:
- if fiberglass shows: 2 coats of primer, 1 red, 2 black
- if primer shows: 1 red, 2 black
- if red shows: 2 black
- if black shows: 1 coat of black (there are still 2 coats of paint underneath)
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| Aft skegs re-faired; rudder post and rudder re-shod; propshaft exit looking much better. The steel bar that protects the prop has also been painted. |
How much paint did we use to patch-up 66’ cat after 3 years of cruising? ½ gallon of red, 6 gallons of black. We like Seahawk a lot. We had used regular Seahawk in Trinidad, but here in Panama, we used Seahawk 44, longer life.
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| Looking much better now. |
Amazingly, we didn’t get on each other’s nerves but instead both worked ourselves to exhaustion, getting the job done in, really, 4 days. We’re back in the water, ready to leave for the Galapagos!
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| 1300 - ready to splash... That little scaffolding and I have a very close relationship! |
COST OF HAULOUT AT MARINA FLAMENCO
- Travelift (paid separately to the Marina) - $17.25/foot
- Storage on the hard: $2.65/foot/day
- Pressure wash: $5/foot (includes scraping barnacles left after wash)
- Electricity: $11.50/day (we didn’t use it: $0)
- Water: $23 (We didn’t use it: $0)
- Access of 2 workers: $5/person/day (WE are the workers! $0)
- Penalty for painting the boat without using yard personnel: $8/foot (we got a 50% break on that, although I think it should have been free)
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| Happily back in the water |
Well, here you go. All in all, it was a good haulout, cheaper than at Shelter Bay!
On to provisioning and off to the Galapagos!
Till then…
dominomarie