Lackey Sailing | Arietta Phase 2-22

December 6, 2021

Arietta Phase 2-22

Monday

Starting on the coachroof, I laid out and masked off the eventual nonskid field areas, leaving borders along the various edges and around hardware installations, which the owner had requested in this case. I used a 1-1/2″ border for the deck edges, and 1″ wide borders around the hardware (just the cabintop handrails in this case) and molded coamings like the forward hatch and companionway, where the overall visual width of the border was already wider thanks to the contours of the molded coamings. At the aft edges of the coachroof, where I’d chosen to end the previous year’s cockpit painting work, I used some foam tape to help ease the paint transition and provide some tapered overspray I could use to blend the new and old paint as needed; later (not shown in this gallery but visible further down the page), I lightly sanded the transition between primer and “old” topcoat where necessary.

I continued on the main decks in the same way, marking off a 1-1/2″ wide border along the inside edge near the cabin trunk, and along the channels by the toerails. This was the right width for these areas, but too wide around hardware, so I chose a 1″ wide border around all the hardware, including the bow cleat, hawsepipe, stanchions, chainplates, pulpit bases (I made a cardboard template of the bases to use in laying out the borders), and jib tracks (including the end caps). Where the winch bases bolted to the deck, a 1″ border was far too wide, since the bases themselves were so slim at that point, so there I used a 1/2″ wide border more in keeping with the small profile of those particular pieces.

On the sea hood, I first marked where the new solar panel would eventually be installed, then, as suggested by the owner, laid out rounded corners at the mounting locations to accommodate the eventual fasteners in gloss paint.

At the aft ends of the sidedeck, where the new work would meet last year’s work, I further extended the opening as far back as the nonskid on the poopdeck, then used foam tape at the two narrow edges to help blend the new paint in the most minimal way, and sanded the transition between year-old topcoat and new primer as needed to prepare for the fresh paint on the morrow.

Once all the edges and hardware were masked off and shaped, I filled in the field areas with masking paper and tape to prevent overspray.

To finish up the final prep for the painting ahead, I set up some additional lighting along the walls, and performed the final solvent wash of the exposed deck areas.