Hi there, very pleased to be the new owner of Lissanna, all GRP, 1980, based at Troon. Photo attached on a very quiet day last weekend.
She was rescued and resuscitated by her previous owner after having been on the hard stand for nearly twelve years, but there's plenty more work ahead. Already seeing lots of connections and useful information on the forum: I have the same mainsail size question as Tammie Norrie/John Tetlow, will want advice on painting vs polishing, and will no doubt have plenty of other questions. Great to be part of the community - had a good chat with the gloriously wooden Dream Twister this weekend. Thanks all - Gerard
Hi Gerard,
Welcome to Twisters. I hope you have lot of pleasure from yours as we have from Sea Miste. Our boat is 48 years old and the topsides are in the original gel coat. In our first season in 1994 we had the topsides cleaned and some old repairs tidied up at Darthaven, the successor company to Uphams, where some of the staff were still there from the Twister building era. Since then we have kept the gel coat in good order with gentle waxing and the occasional cautious machine polish. For the past four years this has been done professionally to a superb standard. We are naturally against painting if the gel can kept looking as well as ours does. We have no experience of keeping a painted glass fibre hull in good order but of the the three wooden yachts from the 1930s with which we are familiar two are spray painted every year and one is brushed. They look stunning but the costs are high. Of course once painted a glass fibre hull should look good for quite some time but it will at some point need re-coating. I know that there are Twister owners who are very skilled with a paint brush but I couldn't make a good job of it. If you do decide to keep her in gel just treat the surface very gently, don't hesitate to seek professional advice if you need it, and so long as you are satisfied with the appearance all should be well.
Best wishes,
Philip
Hello Gerard,
Welcome to Twister ownership, you made a good choice!
I would try to polish the topside first, we were really surprised how well Bob came up with a little elbow grease. I would recommend buying a car polisher, the best and lightest you can afford as it is worth spending that little bit more after a day spent polishing and waxing, if it doesn't work out, you can always sell it on Ebay. I think this could be the one we used and it's quite reasonable, but on the heavy side:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ele.....SwMz9bfaVF
The polish was I think G10 or G something and it worked a treat.
I hope you enjoy getting to know Lissanna, the forum is a great place to ask questions as somebody will be able to direct you the right place.
Best wishes,
Katie
Welcome from me too.
I'd suggest that you only paint as a last resort. To do it well requires a lot of £££, time, skill or all three. and yes, we've done it twice. There was an article 'New Topsides' in the November 1997 magazine about our first experience. Go read it and then proceed to the next paragraph!
Far better, as Katie says, to see if you can get the original gel coat back to a presentable state. If there is a lot of yellowing I'd suggest you treat the whole topsides with an oxalic acid solution. You can buy sufficient for half a dozen Twisters online from AG Woodcare at a cost of around a tenner. We've used it for years with amazing results. It also removes rust stains and restores weathered bare wood. Follow the instructions and rinse well as soon as the job's done. 'T' cutting of any bad bits followed by a really good polishing session should give you a good result.
Best wishes
John
John, Katie & Philip, you'll remember your really helpful advice to me in September on polishing.
I think both I and Craig the local boat painter here were sceptical about polishing, but thought we'd give it a go. The two pictures tell their own story - a fabulous job in her her original green. Thank you
! Gerard
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