In The Boatyard

At Thunderbolt Marine in Savannah, you always see beautiful boats having major work done. An example is Calixe:

Calixe is a 193-foot Feadship owned by Wendy McCaw, former wife of Craig McCaw of McCaw Cellular (sold to AT&T). Calixe is apparently a part of the divorce settlement that went to Wendy. It was listed recently as number 29 in the 100 largest American yachts. As I entered the boatyard, Calixe was being relaunched following completion of a beautiful paint job.

Another head-turner at Thunderbolt is Steel Magnolia:

I earlier said that I wouldn’t show any embarassing photos of Steel Magnolia before her face lift, but now that you’ve seen her bottom out of the water, here’s some of the rust we’ll be having fixed and painted:

And here’s a view of her rather large bottom which needs a little sprucing up:

Work has already begun removing rails, gates, windshield wipers, deck chairs, and anything else that would get in the way of a major paint job. Now that she’s out of the water, work will begin in earnest Monday and I’m hoping to have her out of the yard in four to six weeks. I’ll post some updates on our way to beautification

Getting a Facelift

I’ve never been too happy with Steel Magnolia’s paint job. She’s kind of built like a workboat, and you would expect her to be a little rough around the edges. But, along with a thousand other issues, the original paint job was just not done correctly. As a result, there are areas on the deck and house where paint is bubbling, peeling and cracking. And on the steel portions of the boat, there are some serious, but cosmetic, rust areas that need attention.

I’ve been wanting to deal with these issues for some time but I was told that the boatyard would be far more competitive in the summer, when business is light. So yesterday, I moved Steel Magnolia from The Ford Plantation into Savannah to the Thunderbolt Marine. She’s going to have a face lift!

I could show some pictures of the rust areas and peeling paint, but I don’t want to embarrass the lady. So I’ll just plan on showing the “after” pictures. She should be tied up there for four to six weeks, and then emerge looking all shiny and new.