Make Bottom Painting Fun!

Definitely my #1 - Favorite Boat Yard Thing!!

It was all GR's idea. We began this tradition years ago with our first boat, a  1981 42' Pearson in Daytona Beach, after we painted the bottom a royal blue he suggested we grab a can of white paint to decorate the keel so that when we were snorkeling and swimming in the amazingly clear waters of the Bahamas we could reflect on the fun we had working on our boat. It was a great project that we all had fun doing, we put paint on our hands and made hand prints, we wrote our names and drew little fishes.  These memories  allows those "blood, sweat and tears" moments associated with many bottom jobs fall by the wayside and replaces them with these magical memories of creating artwork with your family. It's like a visible time capsule!

So of course, this boat was no different. The more practical side this project is that we cover every thru hull and highlight every transducer and/or grounding plate and zinc, that way they are easy for a diver (or us) to locate. Tide and time dictated our splash time so I wasn't sure if Gia wanted to participate in this tradition since she was technically supposed to be in school. "Of course, I want to Mom!! It's a family tradition!!" She said and my heart welled up with joy because maybe, just maybe she still loved all this boating stuff after all!!

So with dirt under our nails and paint on our hands and knees we hunched under the belly of this beast and painted our little hearts out! We had a blast and we can't wait to swim under Felicity in the Bahamas sometime soon!!

The End. Thank you!!