Today, Dione IV is moved to the grit blasting hall. Here, she will be wrapped in thick plastic foil and the underwater hull will be blasted with grit.
Highlights – the overview
Grit blasting is similar to sandblasting in process, but the material used is different, more effective and recyclable. Still, the job is an awful and dirty one… very hazardous without the proper protective gear.
More photos below…
Captain’s Log – the complete story
Some say: sandblasting. But here, they use grit. Grit is more effective than sand because grit is hard like diamond and the grain is bigger than sand. This results in a much rougher surface, which is better for the adhesion of the primer. Besides that, grit can be recycled by separating the dirt from the grit.
Grit blasting is a very specialized job. It’s also a very dirty job. Breathing the dust (containing small metal particles and all kinds of chemicals from the paints) is deadly. And, last but not least, the job is very dangerous because grit can bounce back and easily penetrate one’s skin. So, the guy doing this work is dressed in a kind of armor and he’s breathing pressurized air. He speaks Russian and a tiny little bit of German, so we ask him where he’s from. He says: Latvia. Later, we hear from one of the other guys that Latvia is an excuse and he is in fact from a certain country that is in a certain war and people from that certain country aren’t welcome in the Netherlands… But we’re happy he is here and he’s treating our boat professionally and with care! He works 14 hours a day and he takes 3 breaks a day of one-and-a-half hours to recover.
We can have a look at 13:00 at the end of his break. By that time, the dust should have settled on the floor and it should be possible to enter the hall without danger. But when we enter through the door Sher bounces back. The air is still gray from dust. The entire hall and everything in it is dark grey. It looks like a horror! Anyway, I follow the “Latvian” to the boat and with a torch he shows me the result. The hull is equally gray and feels like coarse sanding paper! Fantastic! I give him a big thumbs up and his worn-out face turns into a big smile. Probably he doesn’t get many compliments, working all day in this horrific place without seeing anybody.
The next day they phone me to come and let the centerboard down. Yts will hoist the boat so that there’s room for the centerboard to get blasted. At the same time, the spots where Dione IV rested on the cradle can get blasted.
So, Yts lifts me up to the deck with his mobile cherry picker and I enter the pitch black boat. It feels spooky. I turn on a light and wait for Yts to call me to let the centerboard down once he has hoisted the boat up. Even with the entire boat wrapped and taped in thick plastic, there’s a lot of gray dust on deck. Inside, everything is clean. It’s a weird feeling, being on board in this situation. After lowering the centerboard, Yts picks me up from this great height with the mobile cherry picker.
That same day, they spray the first layer of primer. That has to be done right after grit blasting. Here she is in ‘Battleship grey”:
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