Making it fair

It’s not fair! Boy, how often do we hear that? Parents hear it all the time. “Why do I have to do my school work when Isaac does't have to go to school? Why don’t I get snow days? It’s not fair!” This is heard frequently in our home where Anna is homeschooled and Isaac goes to public school. She has a point. It isn’t fair. It also isn’t fair that she only spends a couple hours a day doing school work and Isaac has to spend all day, and then has homework. It isn’t fair.

Nobody said that life is fair. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about keels. Some keels are fair, some aren’t. Condor’s isn’t. Or wasn’t. I don’t know if it has always been that way. I really kind of doubt it. In fact, I’m sure it wasn’t that way when she came out of the Sabre factory in 1985. Obviously, her keel was attempted to be made fair, but there were imperfections that they tried to hide. But something else had happened.

Condor’s keel had been neglected. Several layers of peeling bottom paint attempted to cover her not so fair keel. Apparently, high copper content bottom paint applied director to lead can cause galvanic corrosion. Some of these areas looked like blisters with chalky, crumbly material left inside. What exactly it is and how it got there is a bit of a mystery. But there is one thing that is clear. It isn’t fair to leave it unfair.

If you’re wondering what I mean by fair, let’s take a look at it. Fair (‘fer) from the Middle English fager. Does that help? Yeah, I didn’t think so. So how about, fair, as in “he inherited a fair estate”-ample, large. Well, Condor’s keel does hang down to 6’4” below the water. While you could call that ample keel, I don’t think that’s fair. Or at least it’s not the fair that I’m talking about.

Fair, as in impartial? I will be the first to tell you that Condor is about as impartial as one can be. She seems to treat all equally. Well, except that surveyor she didn’t like. Apparently he said something unkind so she wouldn’t let him hear her Westerbeke purr. Again, this isn’t the fair I’m discussing. While her gelcoat is bright white, fair, as in fair skin, isn’t it either.

So, how about this? "Pleasing to the eye or mind especially because of fresh, charming, or flawless quality." Hmm. Seems right. Condor’s keel was not of flawless quality. And it isn’t fair to leave it that way.

So the work began. And a fair amount of work it was. Tool number one: our trusty Paint Shaver. In this case, it would be renamed Paint, Lead, and various other garbage Shaver. This trusty tool is basically an electric 4” grinder with a cutter head attached. The cutter head holds three carbide triangles that scrape the surface as it rotates, sending paint, lead, or whatever else flying. Okay, we’re not so environmentally irresponsible as to allow lead and copper paint to freely do their damage. The Paint Shaver has a hood that doesn’t allow the particles to escape except through a 1-1/4” hole. And guarding that hole is a hose leading directly into our HEPA lead vacuum. This is tool number two. It is probably worth pointing out that Suzanne got herself certified as a lead paint removal contractor and thus, she make sure things are correctly.

Why would she do such a thing? Some of you may recall that we live in a restored (mostly) 1860’s farm house. The house was covered in multiple layers of heavy lead paint, and then wrapped in asbestos. Lead paint inside and out. Have you priced the removal of lead paint? It was cheaper for Suzanne to become a lead paint removal contractor and remove the lead paint ourselves. Hence the Paint Shaver and lead vacuum. And who knows how many pounds of lead paint were removed from the inside and outside of the house.

Okay, so donned in gloves, lead dust approved respirator, goggles, and ear protection, she went to work. The idea was to get the surface somewhat leveled out. The Paint Shaver quickly ate through the paint and high spots of the lead. A little sanding finished things up and got into the depressions. These depressions are the imperfections in the keel. Not the depressions that come from dealing with lots of snow (with more in the forecast) and a deadline for completing work on Condor fast approaching. Those depressions are best treated with something other than an orbital sander.

Then came the fun part troweling on the filler. We used an epoxy filler and trowled it out. First vertical, then horizontal, then diagonally. Once cured, ridges are sanded off with the orbital sander. More filler with a wide trowel. Then sanding with a longboard just the way the material was applied – vertical, horizontal, diagonal. A longboard is a long board that sandpaper sticks to. It keeps you from making low spots as you sand. This longboard has nothing to do with surfing. Well, that is unless you were using it to fair the bottom of a planning dinghy.

I don’t know if it’s fair. Fair to Suzanne to do all this work? Fair to have to do this work to Condor? Fair to have let Condor get into this condition? Fair to have to do school work while Isaac has a snow day?

But, it is safe to say that Condor’s keel is fair. And not just the kind of okay fair.