We left Vinoy Basin this morning at 0630 hours and headed north up Tampa Bay towards Viking Boatworks. They are located at the west end of the Gandy Bridge that crosses Tampa Bay. We arrived at approximately 0815 hours and we were out of the water on the travel lift by 0900 hours ready for bottom inspection.

Bottom job did not look any better that it did in May 2010 when we discovered the paint blistering problem... after some discussion with the yard manager it was decided to move the boat into the yard and bock it up and have the paint company representative come out and take a look at the bottom and determine what is causing the paint to detach in water filled blisters.

At approximately 1100 hours we were blocked and sitting on the hard... the paint rep arrived at about 1430 hours and he and the yard manager walked the perimeter of the boat several times scrapping and picking at the blisters... finally they offered to sandblast the bottom and recoat the bare steel with epoxy primer at their cost and I would have to pay for the new bottom paint and it's application... plus the cost to haul the boat.

Not feeling comfortable with the quality of the work here at Viking I made a counter offer to settle.... give me X dollars back on the original work and I'll have the work done somewhere else and we'll part company.

The yard manager and the paint rep are now back in the office determining what my actual cost will be to take their offer and also another number to settle with me and we part company....

Updated info to come soon as I know...