Practical Boat Owner - June 2018

REBUILDING ZEST

Chris and Martin then laminated new
epoxy sheathing, vacuum bagging it to
achieve an optimal layup and bonding.
There was then one big task left – fairing
the repair. This took many hours of hand
sanding with a longboard and multiple
applications of fairing compound to
achieve a perfect finish.
Once they were properly under way the
main structural repairs were finished fairly
quickly. However, as is often the case, the
success of the project also depended on
a huge number of smaller tasks that
required a high level of attention to detail.
These aspects easily took more than half
the total time.

Other improvements
As well as updating the rig, while the boat
was in the shed we took the opportunity to
attend to a number of other tasks,
including replacing windows and a full
repaint. Zest was last painted in the late
1990s with Awlgrip – a superb paint that’s
used on many superyachts. However, it
was well past its best and we had already
been discussing a repaint, and in any
case the age of the existing paint system
meant there was no chance of being able
to repaint just a patch.

So it was an easy decision to repaint the

whole boat. We used a roller to both apply

the new paint, and to tip it off, which

produced an excellent result at a fraction

of the cost of a professional respray. More

on that in a future issue...

Trial sail

We relaunched Zest in October 2016, and

motored across the Solent to Allspars on

the Hamble river to have the new rig fitted,

a mostly straightforward process that took

only half a day. David Heritage, who builds

world championship-winning keelboats,

had recommended a gentle trial for the

first sail, gradually sheeting in to power up

the rig on each tack, while carefully

monitoring the chainplates and their new

frames for any movement. Happily there

was none.

Over the following 12 months the repairs

were thoroughly tested in more than 5,000

miles of sailing, including Kass’s

participation in the 2017 OSTAR, in which

a quarter of the fleet was lost in a

70-knot mid-Atlantic storm.

LEFT Most of the

damage to the

hull planking was

small enough

to be filled with

shallow wooden

plugs, having first

been reamed out

with a Forstner

drill bit

RIGHT Vacuum
bagging the new
epoxy sheathing
on the first
section of the hull
repair

Never underestimate the time and physical effort that

goes into fairing a hull

Zest was repainted while

she was in the shed