1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Why My Boat Didn’t Splash in October 2022

I have dreaded writing this blog article for a long time. But readers have expressed concern about why I’m, for example, installing air conditioners instead of just capping off thru-hulls and getting the boat splashed ASAP, so I figured it’s time to rip off the Band-Aid.

Back in 2018, you may recall that a Nor’easter came through, opened up a can of whoop-ass on Tent Model XXX, and badly damaged my Awl Grip paint job that had only been exposed to direct sunlight twice since it was painted in 2013. I filed an insurance claim on the damage, and the Boatamalans (the fiberglass and paint team from Weaver Boatworks, most of whom are from south of the border) came and got to work on repairs in July 2018.

After I washed the boat so the paint repairs would be clean, the chief Boatamalan found cracks at two spots on the aft deck hardtop that weren’t storm-related. I hadn’t washed the boat since it was painted in 2013, and the accumulated dust hid the cracks. Then he found more cracks along the upper and lower rub rails that were also not caused by the Nor-easter.

He claimed that it’s completely normal for cracks to show up after a boat gets a brand-new paint job. He said that when a nearly completed, multi-million dollar Weaver sportfisher gets picked up by the travel-lift and taken for its first-ever shake-down run, as an SOP they’ll crawl over the boat and identify and then repair all the cracks that show up. He said as many as 50 cracks might show up on a brand new boat the first time it gets moved with the travel-lift.

All of the major fairing work on the hull was done back in 2009. After I put those silly Lehman engines in the boat, I had it splashed and brought the boat around to Deale, MD, where it’s been ever since. So, if the chief Boatamalan’s theory is right, the cracks were the result of lifting and splashing at the original marina where we found the boat, then lifting the boat in Deale.

In addition to the insurance money to fix the storm damage, I also paid a big chunk of change for the Boatamalans to fix the cracks he’d found and do some other paint-related repairs. I’ve had a fairly good working relationship with the chief Boatamalan, and he was having some health problems that were causing a financial crunch, so I paid him up front for all the repairs. They repaired the storm damage quickly enough. And it really did turn out nicely.

But once the storm damage and cracks in the immediate vicinity of the storm damage were repaired, the Boatamalans went away. The chief Boatamalan started having even bigger health problems in 2019, but even when he was healthy he was picking up other jobs instead of finishing my crack repairs. This was irritating, but the boat wasn’t ready to splash so I wasn’t in a big rush.

Fast forward to February 2020, and I was targeted for discrimination and wrongful termination by a lousy psychopath of a newly minted government supervisor. Getting fired put a major crimp in my boat refit, and I didn’t make the drive to Deale much over the next two years. I got texts from the chief Boatamalan every once in a while, telling me he’d worked on fixing some cracks and also that he found even more of them. But one weekend late in 2020, when I wasn’t buried with homework assignments from my lawyer on my three cases against my former employer, I headed over to get some low-cost stuff done on the boat.

I climbed up the ladder, entered the aft deck, and saw something out of place.

That’s odd…I didn’t leave that track here

That aluminum EurekaZone saw track has some sharp corners, and I would never put it in a place where it could easily damage the gorgeous aft deck mahogany. Somebody moved it here from the place I put it last: the top-level scaffolding on the port side of the aft deck.

So I strolled forward to the helm door and looked at the spot where I’d left the track.

That’s where I left the saw track…but what’s up with these cans of bottom paint?

And why is the primer can tipped over?

This is something the Boatamalans do that absolutely burns me up. They’re incredibly irresponsible with materials. They’re relying on the can top to keep the material inside rather than setting it upright. At the Weaver shop, it doesn’t matter: if they screw something up from carelessness, they get paid by the hour to fix it. But they don’t seem to apply what I think of as common sense to easily avoid screwing things up in the first place. And when I say “they” I mean every last one of them I ever met, which is dozens of Boatamalans. They’re just naturally careless, I guess.

So I walked out on the deck and looked up at one of the cracks the chief Boatamalan said he’d been working on.

This crack got fixed and came back 3 times before it finally stayed ‘fixed’

There’s a matching crack on the starboard side that the chief Boatamalan also fixed three times before it finally stayed fixed. But then my eyes scanned down and my stomach fell through the floor. The pic below is what I saw from the deck, looking down the hull side.

It took me a few seconds to fully grasp what I was looking at

Do you see what happened? Before reading any further, please consider leaving a comment describing what you think you see and speculate on how it might have happened. Don’t read other comments, if you can stop yourself. It’ll be interesting to see the various theories that come up.

Slightly different angle

What you’re seeing are the remains of a full can of the Pettit bottom paint the chief Boatamalan had leftover after painting his center console fishing boat. You can see the bent can down on the ground, between the hull and the scaffolding. The other leftover can was in the picture further up, still sitting on the scaffolding. For reasons I’ll never comprehend, he decided to leave two unopened gallon cans of his bottom paint on the upper scaffolding…which he and/or his henchmen would climb up on to work on the crack repair.

It looked to me like the can somehow fell off the top scaffolding, spun as it fell, hit the edge of the lower scaffolding mid-can, which popped the lid off and spun the can even faster, flinging the entire contents of the can against my (nearly) new Awl Grip paint job…like some sadistic, gravity-driven, maritime-themed Jackson Pollock “art.”

If you look closely at the lower rub rail in the pic above, you can see red Awl Grip fairing compound dust from where the Boatamalan or one of his henchmen was sanding it on the crack repair above. The red sanding residue is just to the left side of the Jackson Pollock-splashed bottom paint…art. So, presumably, the fairing work happened before the paint can fell (or was kicked/nudged/bumped).

Adding insult to injury, the bottom paint splashed on the non-skid, too

That’s non-skid that was repainted as part of the repair damage from the 2018 storm…

This is one of those times when I just really regretted ever having started this dumb refit. I can’t get a break! And I can’t make an insurance claim, because the last time I did that I got cancelled, and there aren’t many companies that will insure project boats.

I reviewed the security videos from the last time I was on the boat to the day I discovered the Hispanic Jackson Pollock masterpiece. I had installed security cameras with infrared after the bastard thieves cleaned me out back in 2014. The cameras recorded four people coming and going: me and three Boatamalans, the chief and two henchmen over the course of several months. No strangers came onboard, moved my saw track from the scaffolding to the aft deck, and did some midnight graffiti with a can of bottom paint.

It’s all a big mystery.

The chief Boatamalan swears he doesn’t know anything about it, and that his henchmen couldn’t possibly have done anything like this. But that’s what Boatamalans do…they are never responsible for anything bad that happens…magically…even when they were obviously the ones who did the thing. I’ve been seeing this for years with these guys.

The best-case scenario is that there was a big wind storm (which, in fact, there was, back in November 2020) and the scaffolding was shaking around. The paint theoretically got bounced to the edge and then toppled over. But I’m still at a loss as to how my saw track could have been moved by a wind storm from the scaffolding to the aft deck…the chief Boatamalan insists he and his guys didn’t touch it.

Like I said, it’s all a big mystery.

So, the chief Boatamalan said he could “help” with the bottom paint. Translation: if you pay me, I’ll clean up the mess caused by me leaving my bottom paint on your scaffolding.

I had to accept his terms because 1) there’s no point in discussing logically and rationally why it’s all his fault for stupidly putting his damned bottom paint cans on my scaffolding…he’s a proud Boatamalan, and in my experience they’re incapable of acknowledging when they’ve screwed up.

2) I don’t have the skill set to clean up this mess without destroying my beautiful paint job. And…

3) The prevailing hourly rate here for painters is 3x the Boatamalan, and I’ve seen their work. They suck at least as badly as the welders around here. So if I don’t have the Boatamalan “help” me fix the Hispanic Jackson Pollock graffiti, I’ll spend lots more having somebody else fix it (poorly) or I’ll make a bloody mess of it myself.

I really hate writing all of this down, but it had to be said eventually.

So…in February 2022, the chief Boatamalan started “helping” me fix my Awl Grip paint job and removing the Hispanic Jackson Pollock “art.” I have to admit that he did a surprisingly good job, but while he was “helping” me, he gouged the Awl-Craft paint with a razor blade in a few spots. I would have made a far bigger mess of things, so I don’t fault him for that. He was having health problems and didn’t finally finish removing the bottom paint residue until June 2022.

But while he was working so closely near the lower rub rail, he found spots where the paint looked great but it sounded hollow when he tapped on it. Hollow sounds mean that the paint substrate has separated from the hull. The following pictures show the bloody mess we found when the Boatamalan took a die grinder to the funny sounding spots on the lower rub rail.

The first layer of fairing compound didn’t stick to the aluminum

The blue stuff is Interlux Watertite. The hull had been sandblasted inside and out. Subsequent layers of fairing compound, primers, and paint all stuck to the Interlux product. But it didn’t bond to the aluminum here for some reason.

Awl Grip Wash Primer CF was applied after grinding out a big loose section

After applying Awl Fair, sanding it smooth, then brushing on Awl-Quik sanding surfacer, sanding that, and finally applying Awl Grip 545 primer, the Boatamalan was finally ready to paint the area. At the same time, he fixed the razor blade gouges, sanded the whole area with 320 grit Mirka Abranet and the blend area with 1200, and 1500 out on the very edge of the blend area.

While the Boatamalan fixed loose spots, I dismantled the upper scaffold

Removing the scaffolding makes room for the painter

Removing the scaffolding is also a positive step toward splashing the boat. So there’s the only silver lining in this sad tale.

Prep work is done on the Hispanic Jackson Pollock graffiti/Interlux failure repair

Mini spray booth is done and ready for paint

This was at the end of September 2022, when I still thought I could splash in October. Once the paint work is all done, the tent can be dismantled. We were so close.

Next day, the paint looked great!

I moved the steps so I can go onboard through the helm door

These steps had been sitting under the boat since we finished the paint job in 2013. They’re much better than climbing the ladder at the transom.

The missus came to help me install the stainless rub rail, now that the paint work was all done. We dry fit it and were applying tape to the stainless and the paint in preparation for caulking when I spotted a crack.

Uh…Houston…we have a problem

And another

Both of these newly spotted cracks were under the upper rub rail.

The Boatamalan broke out the die grinder and removed the cracked material

Same pattern as before: Interlux bond failure

Everything stuck to the Interlux, but it didn’t stick to the aluminum

The Boatamalan repeated the process, with Awl Grip wash primer, fairing compound, surfacer, and 545 primer. Then he and the henchmen taped off the boat to protect it from overspray and painted the repair area with AwlCraft 2000 Matterhorn White.

OK…NOW the paint work is done…right?

Wrong.

One of the cracks the Boatamalan ‘fixed’ repeatedly kept coming back. Or, rather, he’d dig in just below the starboard rub rail with the die grinder and remove the line of loose Interlux under the crack. Then he’d fair and prime it. Two to four weeks later, a crack would appear just in front of the area he’d ‘fixed.’ So he’d dig that out and repeat the process. And a crack would appear just in front of that repair. This repeated six times over the course of a year and a half, starting in late 2020.

I finally told him in early October 2022 to not just dig out the new 2″ crack, but to go forward 3-4 inches to make sure there wasn’t more loose stuff. The repair area ended up being 18″ long before he was no longer finding loose Interlux.

Finally, the persistent crack at the aft starboard rub rail was fixed and hasn’t come back…yet

Keep your fingers crossed on this one.

Three weeks ago, the Boatamalan sent me some pictures from the boat. He found more loose spots…on the port side aft rub rail area he’d just painted in September. They were 3-4 feet forward of the loose spot he found and fixed in September. I had asked him to tap on the rub rails all the way around to see if there were more loose spots, but somehow he missed these. So we were back to paint repair phase. And the tent can’t come down until the paint work is done.

The Interlux product failed really badly here

The Boatamalan told me he went around tapping on the entire lower rub rail, where he found a few more loose spots.

There’s zero adhesion on that lower edge

All told, the chief Boatamalan found five places where the Interlux product failed to adhere on the lower rub rail. He repaired those areas, same as before.

The aft port corner is once again prepped and ready for paint…again

Next day, the paint looks good

It was on this day at the end of October 2022 that I cautiously modified my splash prediction to sometime in November 2022. Silly, silly me…

Then I found this while working around the dashboard

I mentioned in my last post that the port Cummins main engine wouldn’t stay running because the key switch wasn’t sending power to the RUN circuit. I was troubleshooting that when I removed the moving blanket that covered the dash pod and found that massive crack in the fillet.

That’s a huge crack

The cause: no fiberglass in the joint covered by the fillet

This was entirely the fault of the Boatamalan fairing team. Chris Craft screwed and caulked the dash pod to the dash…let’s call it a countertop. For reasons I can’t fathom, the fairing crew didn’t put a strip of fiberglass over that joint even though they removed all of the original gelcoat and covered the entire dashboard area with a layer of 1708 fiberglass and epoxy before fairing, priming, and painting back in 2013.

A layer of fiberglass covers the joint, and is topped with an AwlFair fillet

The Boatamalan brushed on Awl-Quik surfacer, sanded, then applied 545 primer

Mini spray booth is ready to go

Prep work is done…ready to spray

Next day, the paint looks great…I could barely see where he blended it

A little work with 2500 grit wet-dry sandpaper and a buffer, and the blend vanished.

Dash pod crack repair is done

OK…NOW all the paint work is done…right?

Wrong. The chief Boatamalan found more funny sounding spots along the lower rub rail.

The Boatamalan didn’t check the under-side of the lower rub rail before

And he found more “new” loose spots just above the lower rub rail

The Boatamalan insists that the spots just recently came loose. He says they absolutely weren’t loose when he tapped the whole area in October 2022. So…I am to believe that the Interlux epoxy fairing compound that’s failed all over the rub rails since 2013 was tight until a week or two ago when he allegedly checked the whole area, then it suddenly gave up after he repaired the other areas.

Nope. Not buyin’ it.

He claims that the chemicals from spraying soaked in, past the AwlCraft 2000 paint, through the 545 primer and AwlQuik surfacer, through the epoxy fairing compound made of cabosil and glass bubbles, where it attacked the Interlux fairing product and caused it to give up it’s formerly tenacious hold on the aluminum.

I find this highly improbable. A far simpler explanation is that the Boatamalan simply failed to detect the hollow sound when he allegedly tapped around the upper and lower rub rails in October. But admitting he screwed up isn’t something he can do.

So, once again he’s digging out the failed Interlux fairing compound, fairing, and priming these newly discovered crack areas. He hoped to paint them this week, but a cold front has come through and overnight temps are freezing or less, and they’re headed toward the 20s. Daytime temps aren’t warm enough to spray AwlCraft. So we’re hoping for warmer weather since no marina in the Chesapeake Bay area will allow outdoor spraying, and that means the tent has to stay up for now.

Then, just two days ago, the chief Boatamalan found another crack. It’s on the aft deck hardtop near the transom. This is another spot where there was a crack in the original fiberglass, and I paid him to fix it with a new layer of fiberglass over the crack back in 2018, when they were doing the storm repair. The spot he fixed stayed fixed, but the “new” crack is just a continuation of the earlier crack. He didn’t put fiberglass all along the area, only along the immediate area where the crack was visible.

The area forward of the current crack was already repaired…and looks great

Why the Boatamalan didn’t run the fiberglass all along that fillet is a mystery to me. It seems to me that if a crack develops on the leading edge, it’s likely to continue going aft.

The “new” crack has been fiberglassed and faired

There’s actually more of the same stuff than what I’ve shown here, but this is the longest post I’ve ever done, so I’ll stop here. Now you know why I’m installing air conditioners instead of just capping off thru-hulls and getting the boat splashed. We’ll return to our normal programming going forward, with me describing things I’ve been doing since the Boatamalan started on the Hispanic Jackson Pollock ‘art’ and various crack repairs.

To end on a brighter note, I’m still optimistic about the boat splashing in 2022. Hopefully, this cold front will pass, the Boatamalan will finish the last of the crack repairs, and the marina won’t fill up before I can disassemble the tent and be ready to splash. Wish me luck and stay tuned!

And consider hitting that tip jar if you’re enjoying reading my refit adventures and tales of woe!

4:45am update on Thursday, November 17, 2022: yesterday, the missus helped me install two more sections of stainless rub rail. We found one more small crack, three places where the paint has been chipped (DEFINITELY WASN’T THE BOATAMALANS!!!), and four spots where somebody spooged some epoxy on the AwlCraft 2000 paint (DEFINITELY WASN’T THE BOATAMALANS!!!). So there’s that…

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Making a Silicone Gasket for the Laundry Closet Porthole