Painted Deck, Fittings Installed: The Dehlya Is Back

In the numerous metamorphoses that our 80s boat has gone through, we have now reached the final stage of becoming a yacht again. "How do you do now? It looked really nice at boot Düsseldorf", some might object. But there is still room for improvement with a refit, even if not much anymore.

After the fair, Dehly first went back to Wilhelmshaven to remove the deck fittings. Then on to Kappeln to Peter Wrede Yacht Refit, also a station that could be described as our second home. There was the final painting of the deck, which of course had to be as pure as possible.

Some visitors to boot found the matt nato gray that Dehly had been showing up to then as "somehow very cool". But that was just the primer that mercilessly revealed the last little bumps. What happened to it in the first two weeks of February is difficult to put into words.

A deck made of liquid milk

Before

later

When YACHT-tv producer Nils Günter filmed the first cloisters of the paintwork, he had trouble getting the outlines sharp with his camera. Only reflective Oyster White everywhere - that's the name of the slightly off-white from AwlGrip that we have chosen for the deck. It looks very similar to a gelcoat. In the photos and in the film, which will soon be available here on yacht.de, the cockpit, cabin superstructure and deck of the Dehlywie appear to be doused with liquid milk. A stunning sight!

Wrede painter Roman Paschke first had to do a few man-days of preparatory work: First of all, the surface had to be cleaned and degreased; after all, the deck had been touched and fingered thousands of times. Then Paschke filled small imperfections with a fine filler, sanded everything, degreased again, picked up the last bit of dust with a binding cloth before he reached for the spray gun.

"The end result is in this preparation," explains Peter Wrede. "If you don't work meticulously here, you will never achieve perfection." That is why at Wrede each of the eleven painters at the four locations in Wedel, Kappeln, Neustadt and Greifswald oversees a project holistically - from the first to the last work step.

Finally, Roman Paschke applied three layers wet on wet in cloisters; in between, the AwlGrip paint ventilated for an hour each time so that the solvent could evaporate. This was followed by tempering for twelve hours at 30 degrees to ensure controlled curing. Our Dehly's deck now actually looks better than new, and it's easier to look after too. Because of the high surface quality of AwlGrip, unlike gelcoat, it will not need polishing for years.

Photo gallery: final painting and other deck work

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Keel hydraulics - is it coming, isn't it?

In mid-February we went back on the road - from Kappeln back to Wilhelmshaven. Transports meanwhile put a considerable strain on the nerves of the driver because the freight on the VanClaas trailer is becoming more and more valuable with each stop. What if the team got off course before the boat had water under the keel? You don't even want to imagine it. But - once more - everything went well!

At Jade Yachting, the Dehly is now becoming a sailing boat again. The virgin white deck has received the necessary fittings in the past few days: winches, genoa rails, deflectors, drop lever stoppers, stanchions, pulpit and pushpit, and for the first time in a long time also cleats. A real ornament in aluminum and stainless steel.

At the companionway bulkhead, apprentice Max Engelke boldly drilled the holes for our Garmin instruments - not without carefully taping everything off beforehand. Because the last thing we could take now would be a ratchet in the freshly painted deck. Unthinkable!

Yesterday the keel rumbled down for the first time. As attentive Refit blog readers know, it is moved by a newly designed electro-hydraulic power box instead of a spindle. The power box works too. However, we have never really been able to try it out because the Dehlyj was on the trailer and the keel had caught up. Fortunately, they have a trolley under the roof in the Jade shipyard. Dehlyalso up, button pressed, keel down. Runs … - apart from initial problems such as insufficient level of hydraulic oil and zero adjustment!

Half a dozen tasks here and there, one or two phone calls, a few days of work - then we wistfully say goodbye to the team around Tobi Schadewaldt, Hendrik Kohrs, Christin Egbers, Christian Fahl, Max Engelke and bachelor Marcel Kloster. And then? Let's go south! But more about that in the next refit blog.