| | Friday, the 3rd of May, the boat was put on shore at De Rietpol in Spaarndam.
It is always thrilling to see a boat ‘out of place’: not in the water, but on shore. We sail from the visitors-ponton to the spot where the (hoist) crane is. The necessary preparations are made, the box is close by the water, so the distance is not too big. Fred is on board and I am taking pictures…at a safe distance ..
The straps are put around the boat with great care and then the boat comes slowly out of the water. Everything is done with great ease by the people of De Rietpol www.rietpol.nl
They work with remote controls and it seems as if they are dealing with miniature boats! Respect for the skills of these people! When the boat is well and good on the stanchions, the rinsing off can start. This is done very shallow, since the antifouling layer that’s on it, must be handled with care. The rest of the cleaning up is up to us.
  
The previous owners, Florian and Arjen, were sponsored, in 2008, by International Paint and the hull of the ship was equipped with a special antifouling, called Intersleek Pro, Intersleek Pro. By now we have been the happy owners of the Pegasus for 2 years. And about 4,5 years later, we can establish that this antifouling keeps up very well. We are lucky that International Paint wants to present us with an extra layer of Intersleek Pro to prolong the test.
Our thanks go to Dennis Tuijnman, salesmanager retailmarket International Paint, who made this possible.
So now we set ourselves to the ‘noble’ task of cleaning the boat and degreasing it as a preparation for 7th May , when the new layer is painted on. Because nothing really ‘sticks’ on this coating, I can remove the little barnacles quite easily with a sponge and some water. In the weekend we will clean the hull and finally he will be completely degreased, in order to have a cleaner surface for the coating. Pretty exhausting, working beyond your control all day long… afterwards you know how many muscles a human body has… But the results are presentable!
I have to tell you that we had a bow thruster built in 2 years ago. By doing so, a small part of the bow has a different antifouling coating from the rest (around the hole) and this doesn’t stick with Intersleek Pro. So there is a clear separation to see between the two kinds of coatings; the layer around the bow thruster is darker. It was like an advertisement for washing powder: one half of the shirt washed with an ordinary powder, the other half with the super-duper washing powder: you could see the encrustation and the barnacles on one layer and nothing on the Intersleek!
Little scratches visible, because the Pegasus has been resting in ice this winter.
Fred, meanwhile, is busy checking all the cut-offs, some of which couldn’t be opened nor closed, not something you want to find out at full sea! Despite the fact that they were replaced in 2008, we gathered that most of them should be replaced again. Better safe than sorry…
Tuesday the 7th , the day has come where Dennis Tuijnman van International Paint comes to the wharf to instruct us on how to put on the antifouling coating. The weather forecast was favourable for this day: dry and sunny. In the weeks past Dennis told us what to purchase to get the job done, like buckets for the paint, plastic to cover up, gloves, overalls, …etc. etc . Armed with tins of antifouling Dennis came up to us and we were happily surprised to see that he brought his overall too. He would not just give instructions, but also would roll up his sleeves and dig in!
The antifouling consists of 3-component-paint, that has to be mixed in a particular proportion and order. To cut a long story short, Fred and Dennis took up the job together and I did the chores around them, like taking care of lunch and coffee.
  
At work Dennis, well prepared! A wonderful result!
NAfter more than 2 hours, the first layer was perched on. Dennis intended for a second one to paint on, but the time to dry took too long. It would be getting too late for him to stay, since he was going on holiday the next day. After a few useful instructions from him, we would be able to do this by ourselves. Again we want to thank Dennis for his commitment; we were very glad to have his help! In the course of the afternoon the wind picked up and the skies darkened, on which we decided not to put the second coating on.
For the next 2 days we went on with chores on the cut-offs and other things, until the weather brightened. Thursday, the circumstances were better and Fred and I did the second layer all by ourselves. Pegasus looks perfect again!
 
Before, after 4,5 years, it looked like this After 2 new layers of Intersleek Pro
After this, we finished the job on the cut-offs, adjusted or replaced the tubes and placed the seaweed-pot a little higher. Replaced an anode that was attached to the axe. Monday, the boat goes back into the water.
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