From Acorn To Arabella.

For months, Steve and Robin have been moving Arabella south, waiting for warm enough weather to haul her, and give her a fresh coat of paint. The time has finally come. Arabella is getting hauled out, and—in this episode—we’ll detail the hard work that went into scraping and painting their homebuilt wooden sailboat.

Arabella’s last paint job was done in Rockland, Maine, back in November 2023. It was a little too cold, and despite tenting and heating the hull below the waterline, the paint job just didn’t stick.

This paint job will be different. With a sunny, warm, and dry forecast for the foreseeable future, it’s time to get to work. But he’s gotta move fast to prevent the oak and cedar planks from drying out too much while Arabella sits on the hard in the hot Florida sun (and to prevent a yard bill bigger than his bank account).

He starts by gathering and sharpening the equipment he needs to scrape the bottom paint and splooging seam compound off Arabella. Steve singlehandedly scrapes and sands the entire hull down to the wood, and explains why the bare hull looks the way it looks (hint: the wood isn’t moldy, it’s just the remnants of a layer of black bottom paint). As usual, Steve’s got a well-thought-out plan, and a few boxes of TotalBoat paint and products to make the magic happen.

Steve and Robin use the laser to mark the waterline, bringing it up just a few more inches. Before applying the first coat of bottom paint, Robin gives Arabella a bath in denatured alcohol. The crew gets to painting, coat after coat. Ultimately, they apply three coast of bottom paint and two coats of topside paint, working well into the night to get all of the work done. The finishing touch is Arabella’s name, hand painted onto the stern of the boat.

After 8 days on the hard, Arabella is ready to be relaunched, and Robin, Steve and Akiva are ready to continue their journey south to…who knows! But, they have another problem they could use your help with: modifying the 8-pin connector on their Epropulsion electric dinghy motor. Their Propulsion Evo Tiller has left them stranded one too many times, but Steve and Robin really like other aspects of the motor and don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you have an idea, we’d love to hear it! Send your thoughts to acorntoarabella@gmail.com.

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Acorn to Arabella started as a wooden boat building project in Granby, Massachusetts. Steve began the journey as an amateur wooden boat builder crafting a 38′ wooden sailboat in his backyard: designer William Atkin’s Ingrid with a Stormy Petrel’s gaff rig. These videos follow the journey from tree felling, to lumber milling, to lofting, to the lead keel pour and now sailing the boat—sharing details of the woodworking, carpentry, metal smithing, tool building, and tool maintenance that traditional wooden boats command. This ultimate DIY project continues beyond the boat shop, as Steve and crew travel and learn to cruise aboard the handmade wooden boat that they’ve built. Just kidding about all that, this channel is about a Siberian Laika named Akiva.

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Original Soundtrack available at benfundis.bandcamp.com

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