I spent the morning removing all the masking from the hull and deck, always a nice step to reveal the (more or less) final appearance.

On the hull, above the sheer strake, the actual final paint line was roughly 1″ above the bottom edge of the primer coats, which I’d intentionally kept lower at the onset to allow flexibility and easier blending with the hull primers.  So the sheer strake, once painted, would be a bit wider than it would appear from these photos.

Since it was too soon after painting to think about masking over the fresh paint so I could do the nonskid, there was little else I could do for the moment to advance the project other than to collect and set up masking materials for next time.  The nonskid would be the final task before I could rebuild the staging at hull height and begin the primers and paint there.

After final preparations, I applied three coats of snow white gloss topcoat (LPU) to the deck areas, beginning once more with the inboard areas of the coachroof, along with the cockpit and cockpit well.  With three coats on all those areas, I could continue with three coats on all remaining deck areas and the loose hatches.

First thing, I finished up the masking on the coachroof.  At the edges, I held a rigid straightedge against the cabin side, and marked 1-1/2″ inboard from there to establish the nonskid line.  I covered the nonskid field areas with masking paper to prevent against overspray.

Next, I moved to the sidedecks and remainder of the boat.  I chose a 3/4″ border around the raised stanchion and pulpit base pads, as well as around the windlass on the foredeck, and 1-1/2″ borders along the toerails and cabin sides (and elsewhere as needed).  At the aft end of the sidedecks, I struck a line following the curvature of the inside of the cockpit coaming to mark the end of the nonskid there.  I rounded all corners with a 1/2″ radius, and covered the field areas with masking paper to protect against overspray.

The final masking task was to strike and mask the final paint line on the outside of the toerails, which would reestablish the visual demarcation of the hull-deck joint.  I made up a simple marking jig from 3/4″ plywood that I could rest flat on the top of the toerail, and use the bottom edge for the mark.  I determined the height at the bow, where there was a clear knuckle in the profile between hull and deck, and marked just above the knuckle itself.

Because about half the toerails were a slightly different (lower) height, where the long sail tracks would be installed, I had to make up a little spacer from plywood to keep the jig at the same height along the entire length of the boat.

In this way, I made a series of marks along both sides of the boat, about 12″ or so apart, then masked up to this line from below, fairing by eye as needed.

With the masking complete, I used up the rest of the day on final preparations for topcoat, including setting up paint and spray equipment, a final solvent wash of the deck areas, and other related tasks.

Over the weekend, I finished up the primer sanding with 320 grit paper on the starboard side.

Now, I spent the morning completing a thorough cleaning of the boat and shop–blowdown, vacuum and solvent wash, and a water rinse of the staging and floor and anything else I could.

The owners sent me some tubular handrails they planned to use, and I set one up on the deck in the approximate position as an illustration, keeping the aft end just a bit forward of the dodger position.

In the afternoon, I got started on masking for the final topcoats, marking and masking off the eventual nonskid field areas.  I began in the cockpit.  I masked off 1-1/2″ wide borders all around, except where the cockpit hatches would be, where I reduced the width to 3/4″ (with eventual corresponding 3/4″ width on the hatches themselves).  I also reduced the width to 3/4″ on either side of the large, deep drain gutters at the forward end of the cockpit, as the wider borders seemed too much here.  Along the outer edges of the cockpit, I made an allowance for the 7/8″ coaming thickness and increased the border width accordingly, so the exposed, visual area of the border would end up at the desired 1-1/2″.

Moving to the coachroof, I temporarily positioned the sea hood where it belonged so I could properly mask the borders around it.  While it was there, I masked off the top of the hood for nonskid as well.  Then I continued over the rest of the coachroof, ending just shy of finishing the job with only the outer edges left to mask; these would take a little more thought and work to lay out properly along the widely-radiused cabin top edges.  I’d finish that up first thing next time, then move on to the sidedecks and the gunwales.

 

With only a half day available, I managed to sand a good portion of the fresh primer, using 320 grit by machine and by hand.  I started with the loose hatches and sea hood, then moved on to the cockpit and coachroof, and finally the port sidedeck, foredeck, toerails, cabin side, and sheer strake before I ran out of time.  All that remained to finish was the starboard sidedeck and environs, which I planned to finish over the weekend.

After final preparations, I applied three coats of epoxy finish primer over all deck areas.  As before, I started with three coats on the cockpit well and inboard coachroof areas–places I needed to reach from the sidedecks–then continued with three coats on all other areas thereafter.

After an unwanted day’s delay, the filler was ready to sand, and I got right to it.  Afterwards, I cleaned up the boat and the shop in the usual ways–blowdown, vacuum, solvent wash, and a water rinse to the staging and shop floor to settle the remaining dust.

I spent the remainder of the day on the final preparations required for finish primer, including some minor masking repairs, a second solvent wash for all deck areas, preparing hoses and spray equipment, and various other tasks to ready the boat and equipment for finish primer next time.  I added a 1/2″ strip of tape at the bottom edge of the sheer strake, raising the line to which the finish primer would extend.  This would make it easier to taper the masked edges of the two different primers when I started work on the hull later.

One of the pitfalls of the fine filler I like to use at this stage is that it is a slow-cure hardener.  There’s a fast-hardener version (red), but I don’t care for it; I tried it years ago and while I can’t remember what it was I didn’t like, I know I didn’t, so I always use the gray slow version.  But even in good times the product takes its time coming to a workable cure.

I had applied the filler late the day before, and though I’d hoped otherwise, I knew there was a chance it wouldn’t quite be ready to sand in the morning–and indeed it was not.  I could still dent the filler with a fingernail, and my attempt to sand (I had to try) resulted in immediately-clogged discs.  This was frustrating, but there was nothing for it but to bump the heat and wait.

I mollified myself by doing what I could to prepare the primers and equipment for the next step, work that had to be done sometime, so doing it now would save me some time after sanding, whenever it happened.

Over the weekend, I spent several hours getting a jump start on the sanding, beginning with the cockpit, then the coachroof.  This set me up well to begin the regular work week with the remainder of the sanding on the sidedecks, foredeck, cabin sides, toerails, and gunwales.  I sanded the primer with 220 grit paper by finishing sander and hand as needed, then vacuumed up the dust.

Next, I solvent-washed all areas to clean and remove the final traces of sanding dust, then went around the boat with a strong light and magnifying glasses to help highlight and mark  with a pencil the various areas that would require fine filler.  These areas were mainly pinholes in the deck filler, porosity in the new or old/exposed laminate, and a few areas that the primer had helped bring to my attention, such as some places where the old nonskid pattern was slightly showing through.  This was a known and expected part of the process and one of the main benefits of the high-build primer application.  Most areas wouldn’t show up in these photos, but I included a few to represent the sorts of areas I marked.

I prepared a batch of fine filler that I like for this stage of the project, and troweled it into the various voids around the decks as needed.

In a landmark day, I spray-applied three coats of epoxy high-build primer over the deck areas, starting with the inboard portions of the coachroof and cockpit, which areas I had to access from the nearby sidedecks, and then moving on to the main decks, cabin trunk, toerails, loose hatches and sea hood, and upper reaches of the hull-deck joint above the topsides.