Removing the bottom paint

At some stage in its history the boat was painted white with a blue antifouling.

From what I could see under the flaking paint the original gelcoat was a brown with a white boot stripe. You can see the brown gelcoat under the flaked paint a the bow in the picture below.

Because of the scrapes in the fiberglass in places, wanting to plug the old thru hull and the general poor condition of the paint I decided that a repaint was necessary. The need for repairs and the condition of the exposed gellcoat meant that restoration of the gellcoat was not possible.

The previous owner had kept her on a mooring and there was what appeared to be minor blisters along the waterline above the antifouling.

As I don't plan on keeping her in the water for long periods and I want to fully repaint, all the old bottom paint had to go.

We began by trying to take the paint back by hand. Sealing up the area to catch any waste we tried a combination of water blasting, wet sanding, grinding and scraping, but didn't progress too far.

The photo below is post water blasting, pre wet sanding and scraping...

Below is after days of wet sanding ... not much progress!

After not much progress we decided that a more efficient method of paint removal was necessary, so we sought professional help...

Soda Blasting...

The entire boat was sealed into a tent with positive air flow to prevent any nasties escaping.

And all the used soda and removed paint was collected in this sock at the other end.

This progressed much faster than trying to do it ourselves, and the big plus is that someone else was doing the dirty work for us!

The finish after soda blasting was excellent. There was very little need for extra filling and sanding beyond filling the scratches and blisters that were already there.

Another plus. As this was done far away from any salt water by a person who normally works on car bodies and other bits of metal the price was measured in real dollars not boat bucks.

More Nomad history

On advice from Floyd over at TSP I began looking into the Comet 20. "Ozboatie" put together a bit of info on the Comet, apparently the Comet began life as the Nomad before a split lead to one partner modifying the mold to be the Comet and the other still building the Nomad.

From Ozboatie on TSP:

History
The original design was know as a Nomad trailer sailer and was designed and built in N.S.W .by two partners. They had a disagreement and split up. One came to Melbourne with the mould. He modified it by adding a cabin hatch and raising the cabin height, changing the bow shape and the interior mouldings. He started a boat sales yard under the name of Bardo Sales.

The Comet is a far better looking boat than the Nomad. There were also a small number of 18’s made . There were about 65 or 70 Comets sold.

Comet 20 - the bow and pushpit are obviously different to the Nomad 20 but the cabin top is clearly very similar.

This Comet looks to be on the same trailer as my Nomad.

A Comet interior (I don't know if this was standard). I believe my Nomad originally had a similar starboard galley but this was later cut away.

Comet 20 sales information.

How the numbers stack up based on the sales info for each make

...................................Comet 20..............Nomad 20
Length...........................19'7" ...................19'3"
Beam...............................7'3".....................7'2"
Head Room....................4'6"....................4'6"
Main Sail ...................100 ft sq..........108 ft sq
Jib.................................94 ft sq.............60 ft sq
Displacement..........1600 lb..................1600 lb
Ballast........................500 lb ..................330 lb
Draft plate up...............11" .......................12"
Draft plate down.........4'3"......................4'6"

The repairs begin...

After sailing a few times I've decided to get stuck in and fix the boat up so that it is more enjoyable and safer. This will mostly be fixing what has been neglected for a few years.

The list at the moment includes:

Repaint - the boat was painted and antifouled by a previous owner. It all has to go ready for a shiny new coat.
Remove old fittings - after 30 years there are numerous old fittings stuck here and there that will go during the repaint. These include old boarding steps (that were behind the ladder) lots of old bits of deck organisers, an old thru hull for a sink that no longer exists.
Epoxy holes - fill all the holes from the old fittings.
New deck hardware - replace old clam cleats, fit new bungs, new hawse pipe (one the anchor chain fits thru), bow roller.
Rewire - the old electrics looked like a nightmare so the entire system is going and a new one being fitted.
Running rigging - fit topping lift and slab reefing.
Repair trailer - there is a bit of rust in the trailer and the rollers are shot. Overall it needs a service.

The first step is to take everything off the hull so we can clean it back to gelcoat and see what is hidden under the paint and fittings.

Original gel coat is visible where the white has flaked from sitting in the water


An area of gelcoat has been exposed on the bow with a bit of scraping.




On the deck the lifting paint can be seen as well as the old anchor holder (the anchor has rusted away while in the holder), and the dead solar panel. The hawse pipe just behind the roller furler is too small for the eye or anchor chain to pass through resulting in it being piled on the deck. That allows it to slide around nicely when sailing or towing. The bollard is also too small to effectively hold the anchor line.


Damage to the rubbing strip from being mored.

The name plate. I don't know why the Nomad had been covered over. I don't know if I'll be able to save these as they are fairly damaged.

Stern view. Another thing on the list is to build a new hatch and fix the timber trim.

On the weekend we began the process of stripping the hull. Lots of crawling into small spots to get to nuts and bolts.

The bow stripped


Cabin top. All the bits on the right were the rotting remains of an old deck organiser.


The hatch. This skylight was covered by the old solar panel. Unfortunately it is painted on the inside also. The hatch needs some repairs, there is a crack in the back from flexing when opened.


The stern. There was a lot of stuff on there and none of it was bedded properly. The lowest bung was just a press fit!


Where the stanchion was positioned. Again, not properly bedded and obviously leaking. We are currently debating if we will refit the stanchions. The lines are too low to hold you in the boat (particularly if you are on the cabin top) and having them means you have to walk over the cabin top to go forward and cuts down on deck space forward. I might just fit grab rails on the roof and open the side decks up.


The cockpit seats. Getting all the old flaking paint out of that moulded nonslip will be fun!


The stripped hull in the carport ready for work. It looks much sleaker without all the extra fittings.


The stripped interior. This will be repainted.


New woodwork will be fitted around the companionway.


Some of the beautiful electrics I found when I removed some panels.


The old thru hull from the original sink. The method used to seal it up was a cork and paint over!


I tried to get stuck into the antifoul with the high-pressure cleaner. It started to lift it fairly well. Lots of safety equipment worn in the process. This looks like it will be a long job.


Blisters? Dimples appeared under the antifoul as the cleaner took it off.


An example of the damage from the old trailer rollers.

Nomad 20 sales info

I've been searching for any info that I can track down on the Nomad 20. From what I've been able to find there weren't many produced. First built in 1970 and manufactured by Fibreglass Industries.

So far the best info I've found was in the library on the John Crawford Marine website.

This is the original sales information provided to dealers...

In the same library there is a photo that looks to be from the 70s at some stage. Its a bit hard to tell but it looks like a new boat sitting in a dealer's yard.

The two obvious differences between this Nomad and mine is that this one has a tandem trailer and grab rails along the cabin roof. Mine has neither although I am thinking of installing grab rails.

New rigging and a splash in salt water

After the first sail on Chifley dam I decided that something needed to be done about the rigging. The turnbuckles all had nice bends in them and there was a huge kink in the backstay and all the strands had separated.

A friend put me in touch with a Jasen Cowling a rigger in Mosman. Jasen is more commonly at home working on something a bit larger than my 20 foot trailer sailer or crewing for a blue water classic, but he was more than happy to sort me out.

We parked my little trailer in the marina car park over shadowed by the masts of all the 'real yachts' and we set about resolving the sins of the past. Jasen took time to show me around my boat and explain why he shuddered at some of the previous rigging jobs. I went in looking to replace the stays and came away with all new standing and running rigging, but feeling much safer and confident in my little boat (it really did need it), if a bit poorer than I'd hoped.

To my surprise, a little yacht on a trailer in a marina car park attracted a fair bit of attention. A few of the pros based at the marina came out for a look and were very complementary. I'd recommend Jasen, he's not as cheap as a backyard job but he went out of his way to save costs and teach me about my boat and you do get what you pay for.

With a new set of strings holding the big pointy thing up and a good forecast for the weekend I was keen to get out on the water. So Saturday we made the arduous drive down to Tunks park in Northbridge (did I mention I live 5 minutes from the boat ramp?). After the experience launching at the dam I kept the trailer higher out of the water and tried to get more tilt to get her off. All appeared to be going well until the prop on the outboard touched the ramp (it was fully tilted but not high enough) and I lost all momentum. After a wade to tilt the outboard a bit higher and a few "helpful" comments from the guy powerloading next to me I tried again. This time the bow dropped off the roller and scraped on the frame of the trailer before floating nicely off.

We motored along Long Bay out into Middle Harbour. We then cut the motor unfurled the jib, hoisted the main and sailed North toward Bantry Bay. After a bit of time in Middle Harbour we turned into Sugarloaf Bay and tucked up into Crag Cove to relax for a while.

Back out into Middle Harbour we found the wind had picked up and we had a nice up wind run to get back to the boat ramp. I was very impressed by how well the Nomad pointed and how stable it felt, although a 30-something footer did nicely highlight the principle of hull speed by passing us several times as we worked up-wind and they trained.

At the boat ramp I was feeling confident about loading and thought everything went well. That is until I noticed that I had left two big scratches in the bow when I winched the boat onto the trailer. The bow dropped between the Retriever-mates and dug in as I winched. Looking at other trailers I saw a centre between the retriever-mates, on mine this roller is on the other side of the first cross-member. Probably something else to fix when I get to the trailer.

All up I was really happy with our first real sail on the Nomad and very keen to get out for more. I have also decided to put some effort in and fix her up properly so we can really enjoy her.