Since 1992, Louis' father has owned a Kelt 5.50 based at Les Minimes in La Rochelle. With this boat in its keelboat version, Louis has already done a lot of sailing. He has sailed up to Ireland and down to Portugal in particular. Each time alone or with a friend. When his father died, Louis, in agreement with his mother and sister, put the boat up for sale. But this sailing boat dating from 1979 remains on sale for 3 years and does not find a buyer. Louis therefore decided to keep it and bring it back to his home in the Paris region to renovate it.
The water outlet is epic. Indeed, for the last 3 years, this Kelt has not sailed and has turned into a real mussel farm: "I even found an oyster bigger than my hand," he tells us.
The boat will arrive at its club on the banks of the Seine in 2014. Louis therefore tackled the hull, which he sanded entirely to return to gelcoat. The dead works have been repainted several times, while for the live works, Louis has at least 14 coats of antifouling!
He will therefore sand before filling in the various impacts. On the whole hull, he decides to apply 3 coats of paint. He applies the paint, from Toplac International a single-component paint, with a roller and a lacquer brush. Between each coat, he sanded again with 200 grit sandpaper. In the end, the result is impeccable. The boat is as good as new again.
He finally decides to redo the original tapes. If they were made with stickers, Louis prefers to paint them directly on the hull. With these blue stripes, this Kelt 550 becomes perfectly identifiable again.
However, Kelt's original typeface is too much work. The "Kelt 5.50" on the back of these boats is missing. On the other hand, Louis uses the same typeface of Kelt's K to write the boat's name: "Kirenoac".
As for the waterline, Louis had the good idea to keep some reference marks before erasing it: a point on the bow, a point on the transom and a point on each side at the level of the midship beam. Thus with the eye, by lining up the tape on the 3 points on each side, the sailboat found its line again.
This 3-year construction phase has now been completed. Now it is time to tackle the bridge, before thinking about the fittings. Louis estimates his expenses at around 750 euros, including in this estimate the sanding machine that had to be replaced, the first one having given up the ghost.
If this Kelt has touched up the water on the Seine, just to rewatter a little, it is in the Saint-Malo region that its renovation will continue. Indeed, it will now be Louis' home port.
