Most of you probably know by now just how slowly we move. We are never in a race when we sail to new places. When we find an anchorage we like, we might stay put for weeks. We enjoy Panana so much, we’ve stuck around since 2018. We do, pretty much, everything with zero sense of urgency. So it makes sense that our galley renovation stretched into three years.
It started with a desperate need for a new refrigeration system – one that actually cooled our food; one that didn’t drain our batteries; that didn’t leak all over our floor and stain our teak cabinets. That renovation was quick by our standards. We demolished the old cooler box and installed a new refrigerator in two months.
Switching out the old, oversized, leaky, top-loading refrigerator for a drawer model was one of the best upgrades we ever made on ¡Pura Vida! Doing so, however, meant a countertop was needed where the old top loading refrigerator/freezer door used to be. If a new surface was needed there, why not freshen up the whole thing? We had done this previously in our old New Orleans home, and that space was large. How hard could it be to redo a boat’s small galley’s counters?
This project started in September, 2021. We just completed it.
This Boat Is Too Well Built
Ideally, we would have removed the built-in upper cabinets and installed brand new Corian or granite countertops underneath those, then just put the cabinetry back in place. On other Island Packets this is a big project, but it’s doable. However, the previous owner of our boat had custom-built cabinets beautifully added above the factory ones, and they are solidly in place. We could not figure out how to remove them all without causing damage. Rather than replacing the existing Formica counters, refinishing them became the new goal. That old Formica was dry, scratched, chipped, stained, and discolored. And it was cream colored. Island Packets are known for their creaminess. It’s everywhere, inside and out. We wanted any color but that in our new galley. Even plain old white would be welcome.
But first the Formica had to go.
Ripping all of that out was extremely satisfying. Demolition and surface prep took a very slow three months, working two or three days at a time. Now we just needed to find the perfect surface medium.
The Kit
After watching several how-to videos, and reading loads of specs and reviews we decided to give Spreadstone a try. Spreadstone is a multistep countertop paint kit, essentially, that uses tiny grains of stone and shiny flecks to mimic granite. It is inexpensive, pretty, and easy. They advertise that it can be done in just a few days. This is absolutely true if you don’t decide, after it’s all done, to change colors.
They offer several color options. Our friends and family will be surprised to find that we chose white. Even we were surprised, but it was one of two colors available to ship to us in Panama immediately.
Reviews noted it would fade into more of an off-white shade. That appealed to us. Stark white on an Island Packet just doesn’t work. It really clashes with all that cream. Off-white might harmonize.
The process was simple, and we enjoyed the results. We discovered quickly, however, that the Spreadstone topcoat is permeable. Within days, stains appeared wherever we let red wine drip, or spilled a bit of coffee. It was absolutely no match against achiote, that bright orange natural food coloring that Panamanians love adding to their chicken feed (for very, very orange-yellow egg yolks), their butter, and their dry seasoning blends. I tried sanding the discolored spots and bleaching out the stains, but it didn’t work. These white counters would not do. We made a huge mistake.
We found a better topcoat in a simple two-part epoxy. If we had decided to paint over the stained spots and keep the white, the epoxy would have done the job of protecting it, but we simply didn’t like the white, even after it started to fade to off-white. Our friends and family are saying we knew it!
A Radical Decision
So we started over. We had only a few weeks to finish this job before leaving the boat for nine months. The only color that wasn’t cream, beige, or brown, and that the company could send us quickly, was black. Our house in the French Quarter had black granite countertops. We loved them. Black it was.
This is the point where we chose to do something scandalous. Something so controversial it is rarely discussed in sailing circles. It is so offensive to some, you would think we were suggesting doing it to their boats instead of our own. We decided to paint the teak. Some of it was water damaged from years of refrigerator leaks. Some of it was stained from two decades of kitchen spills. Some of it was destroyed in the process of ripping out the old cooler box. But mostly we were just sick of all that orange wood! We didn’t paint much, only the lower part of the galley, and in a very neutral blue-gray, but even this is a hard pill for some to swallow. Some may find it abhorrent, but we absolutely love it, especially against the new and improved black countertops.
The Finish
After sanding the white paint, repainting with black, sanding, painting, and sanding again we were ready for the epoxy. This is an extremely fast process. Once you mix the resin and the hardener together you have only a precious few minutes to pour it on and try to smooth it out before it hardens. I do not recommend doing this unless your boat is on the hard (and level) or in a very calm marina. If your boat is leaning at all, or rocking in the water, it will be close to impossible to evenly apply the epoxy. This is a messy project. For it to look right it must drip completely over the edges of your counters.
Within an hour we were kissing each other in delighted congratulations. Okay, we were probably just kissing for kissing’s sake, but we really were delighted. Before it was dry we could already tell this was the finish we’d hoped for. In a couple days’ time, after it had hardened, we were thrilled with the results.
We have had these countertops for almost a year. They sat unused for nine months, and have been in constant use for only the recent two, but they seem to be holding up beautifully. A surprising bonus is that the epoxy keeps things firmly in place. The finish is smooth and solid, not sticky or tacky in any way, but within seconds of putting a dish down you will find that it will not slide. This is fabulous on a moving boat.
When we returned to ¡Pura Vida! in October we were able to finally get the galley in proper working order, which was important, because where we were headed there are no restaurants! Special touches include a new faucet, stick-on tiles for a bit of bling, a custom made teak cutting board inlaid where the old fridge door was, and floor padding for back support. Now we can finally call this galley glam-up complete.
The following photos provide a bit more info for the Island Packet community
