Hail to the Hive!

Every two to three years your boat will feel an irresistible pull to be taken out of the water to have it's undersides pressure washed, treated and re painted....We call this..... ' THE BLACKENING!'

All joking aside this is a necessary, labour intensive and expensive undertaking but is an absolute must do to protect your boat from the evils of corrosion. Traditionally this is done every two to three years so it's a good idea to set aside a few quid every month to have funds in place when the time comes. This means you are not feeling wounded when the lump sum leaves your coffers. We did it ourselves so it was only the lift out and the paint we had to pay for, but alot of people pay to have it done. I prefer to do it myself, get in there and slap it on.

We are very lucky as this boat yard doesn't usually allow people to do their own boats but we get on very well with them and they trust us. That and we are flexible and fit in between their other jobs so once she was out it was get blasting with the pressure washer, taking advantage of the unusually nice autumn weather for her to dry and then....

Get it Blacked!

A lot of folks don't bother blacking the underside of the boat, their rationale being the canals are shallow and it will just get scraped off as they cruise the network. But I think tats a load of old bollocks and any protection you give the steel has got to be a good thing. I mean , yes it will take a scraping, but I feel it should be done and i will always do it.

So @millycf1976 and myself got stuck in and put three coats of bitumen based black hull coating on the bottom base plate, three coats on the side and about five coats on the waterline.

We would do a coat a day and let it dry and then go back the next morning to do the next.

It's the first time we have had Cygnet out of the water since we bought her a few years ago so she was due a blacking and we were very surprised at the condition of the hull. She looks in excellent shape.

To be honest it has inspired me to have her out again in exactly 2 years time so we can keep a good eye on her and keep her in tip top condition. And when she comes out next time it will be interesting to see if the bottom scraping did scrape much of it off. My bet is it won't have and the reason a lot of people don't do it is because they either aren't on high enough stands or they are trailered out and it's low to the ground. Or laziness who knows?!

@millycf1976 is extremely meticulous when it comes to jobs like this. And she's alot smaller than me so easier for her to get under the boat 😉.

We now need to paint the black part of the gunnels and the new blacking shows it is in desperate need of a touch up. Then the green to follow. She will look superb soon.

Well thats's another task ticked off of the very long list of many things to do. I think as long as you know there will always be more tasks added to the list and know it will never be finished, then you can stay calm and keep on keeping on.

Until tomorrow my Hive Friends.

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