It’s been nearly two years since Sanity was last lifted out so it I thought it was about time we moved her on to the hard standing for inspection and some maintenance below the waterline.

Back in November 2009 the hull was dry ice blasted to remove multiple layers of antifoul and expose the bare hull. This was a great idea in theory, but left me with a major job to repair damaged areas where the blasting had removed previously applied filler.

Due to work commitments I struggled to even start on the hull until January, and by then the temperatures had plummeted so I struggled to find days warm enough to start applying epoxy filler to the damaged areas. I spent days lying under the hull filling small areas of damage from the bow all the way to the stern. I then applied three coats of Gelshield to protect the hull before two coats of black anitifoul.

Two years later and after two voyages to the Netherlands I was praying my hard work had paid off when Sanity was lifted out in October.

After nearly an hour and a half of pressure washing on the lift most of what was left of the antifoul had been removed, leaving a remarkably clean bottom.

I have been very lucky with the weather, I have managed to polish the hull and all being well once we fit some new anodes and slap on a couple of coats of fresh antifoul we should be back afloat very soon!