During the the purchase in 2016 the previous owner did get the boat out of the water to reblack the bottom, as this point we did get a survey done as the old blacking had been removed so gave the surveyor good access. As part of the results he mentoned the hull had some “pitting” and that although not too bad we should do all we could to prevent this getting worse. I looked at what pitting was, what caused it, and what could be done about it. I decided the best course of action was to get the hull “zinc coated” and the a two part blacking applied.
In 2017 we took the boat to Debdale Wharf the hull was shot blasted, zinc sprayed and then a two part epoxy coating applied. The whole process took a week, the boat comes out on a Monday and goes back in the following Monday.
As an added bonus for us the route from South Oxford was a lovely route, culminating in a trip down Foxton locks, with Debdale just a few miles further on.
Only time will tell if this proves to make any difference, but the process was pretty slick, and even the base plate gets the same treatment.
