I used BILGEKOTE made by Interlux
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Bilgekote is a fast drying, durable coating formulated for application to bilge areas. Helps prevent absorption of oil, gasoline or sludge into wood and fiberglass.
Bilgekote protects bilges, lockers and bulkheads against moisture penetration and wear and tear. Bilgekote will resist oil and fuel spillage and cleans easily.
Main features are:
High opacity for excellent covering power
Hard wearing
Available in gray and white, in quarts and gallons
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While it looks nice here, you should have seen it when we started.
By the way, looking at these pictures now makes me realize just how valuable the relocating of the AC compressor & heat exchanger , fresh water pump and plumbing and the sanitation system pumps and plumbing was.
I now have so much more room to get around the engines, I mean
all the way around. Of course the Yanmars are longer & taller but not as wide as the 454's.
This project may not make too much financial sense today, however givern what we have in her as compared to what it would cost to replace her with one of equal reliability - new or close to new with diesels, well then it might make a little more sense today.
Just a little.
Can't really put a price on safety or on this degree of reliability, or the fact that all systems work perfectly, but I'm just like BobCT, I could not afford to do any of this if I had to pay someone else to do it.
With exception to the A/C unit, the new canvas and the new shafts/struts/motor mounts/shaft seals and setting the Yanmar engines in there, everything else done to this boat was by me personally.
I really do know every square inch of this boat, from rebuilding the head to installing the windlass to replacing the backing plates in the swim platform.
With the help of some good friends in 2003, I even removed the entire bow rail, stanchions and all and rebedded the bases with new fasteners. Total cost was limited to 2 full days of labor, 5200 tubes and new fasteners along with beer and some awesome huge fresh shrimp that we cooked up cajun style.
Imagine what THAT would have cost at a boatyard !
These Internationals can be AWESOME boats, they have engineering, design and style that keeps them contemporary even 30 years later.
You can make it anything you want if you can cover the costs of materials, a bit of rudimentary skill, determination and most of all - time.
RWS
RWS