Today, we welcome guest blog star and TotalBoat Ambassador, Brock Callen. Brock lives on Martha’s Vineyard and sails all over the globe. But his heart thumps fastest when he’s going as fast as possible on the water – be it the warm, wavy kind – or more recently, this hard and icy variety. Read all about Brock’s icy escapades below. And as you might suspect, he leaned hard on his supply of TotalBoat to keep these ice mobiles moving and in one piece.
BROCK CALLEN: As Kristin noted in a recent Total Boat Blog Post, we have been very fortunate in the Northeast to get some pretty good ice in these early days of 2018. Unfortunately, with good conditions also come breakdowns. Now I have been relatively lucky in the last few weeks, but in getting a turn on my buddy Spa’s old DN, we did happen to have a little blow out on one of the fasteners for the mounting plate for the plank. This is a relatively critical area on the boat as it is directly where the energy is transferred from the fuselage into the plank, and thus the runners. Even a little blowout like the one pictured below can wreak havoc. So the other night I set about to give the “Jorka” a little bit of a “Birthday” in return for Spa letting me have some rips on the Pond.
I started with a really simple laminate of two layers of 8oz Carbon Twill. I wetted them out with Total Boat Epoxy and slapped them on with a little bit of Peel Ply. Note, I did not go crazy and get super anal-retentive, time was a bit of a factor so I really like to use the peel ply over the epoxy as it lessens my sanding time. One little hiccup that I did run into – and which is not abnormal – is I had one little spot in the carbon that had an air bomb show up after I sanded. Instead of sanding this all the way out or laying another laminate of carbon on top, I simply use a little bit of Thixo Flex squeegeed into the void. I also use the Thixo around the sides as a fairing filler. It’s easy to sand and saves me a stop later instead of doing a whole nother fill and fair step. Add a little heat lamp over the top on the cool nights (never leave unattended ever for a minute) and I am on to the next little project.
The inside of the boat was bit worn and torn from years of boots and yaktrax so seeing that I had the last bit of some Total Bilge I decided to do a quick paint job on the inside of the fuselage. One thing to note is that when I looked at the inside of the paint can it was discolored and had separated a bit but by adding a couple of heavy sloshes of the Brushing Thinner it quickly mixed up nicely. If the paint is a little old this is a great trick and on the cooler nights, it definitely helps it go on and kick off a bit faster.
Follow Brock on his Instagram account or in this space as we follow him around the oceans on his many exciting escapades.